Deliverance?
by Ladyithildiel
Summary: What if, after all was said and done, Reapers mostly defeated, there chanced a way to bring back a lost loved one?    Characters property of Bioware-Shepard too, though her character is my own Shepard's.
1. Chapter 1

She could almost feel the stares, but she didn't really care; her entire attention was focused on the screen before her. Absently, she thought she would have done better to take this incoming mail upstairs in her cabin, but it had been too late to do that the moment she read the opening line.

_"We have someone you're familiar with…"_

Normally, she'd have dismissed the transmission at once, consider it a cruel, malicious joke or even a scam-there were a lot of those going round the extranet, after all-but she had instead read through it. And she was sure she had been staring at her screen for a goodly amount of time by now; given she normally didn't stand still for this long, it was no wonder people were getting concerned.

"Everything…alright, Commander?" a hesitant voice finally asked and she blinked, recognizing it as her appointed assistant. She had been the one to point her to the unread message…a few long minutes ago; she nodded, looking up, trying to seem as focused as ever. It had got harder lately, to maintain this façade of unshakeable strength and she hated having to fake it, but there was nothing for it. Hero of the galaxy, one and only chance against the Reaper threat, there were expectations-she tried her best not to wince at the recurring thought. She was bone-tired of those expectations, if she wanted to be honest with herself, all she really wanted right now was out. She had never wanted any of this and, though she would not change a single thing, a single call she had had to make along the way, there was a bitter, numb feeling when she pondered the disdain, distrust, haughtiness her actions had been faced with.

"Well, that is a hoax if ever I saw one," another voice, rough and a little raspy startled her out of her fugue for good; she shook her head, looking over her shoulder; as expected, Garrus, reading the screen in front of her. "You know this can't be true, right, Shepard?" he asked evenly now, ignoring the frown she was giving him as his eyes darted along the laconic text flickering on the screen.

"…Yes," she finally answered, turning the message off. "It might be a hoax,"she added, though she didn't even sound convincing to herself.

"Shepard," Garrus said simply, the reprimand obvious in his voice. "It can't be true; we were there…when he died," he continued quietly, nodding for her to follow him. Conversations like these were best held out of earshot of the crew, he thought, his old C-Sec training taking over.

"Carry on," the commander snapped at the lingering crew members. "I don't see why me picking up my messages has everyone stalled; if we were about to be blown up by a passing Reaper, I'd let you know". She must have sounded like her usual self, she thought, not without satisfaction, as everyone hustled back to their jobs.

She had to roll her eyes when they reached the top deck-the captain's own cabin and one of the few places aboard the ship one could actually have a private conversation. She wasn't even surprised when she spotted Liara, leaning against the wall just outside the cabin door.

"Let me guess, you know about the message," the commander rolled her eyes.

"I am the Shadowbroker now, remember? No communications slip past my nets, least of all communications pertaining to you, Shepard," the blue-skinned Asari answered, exchanging a glance and a nod with Garrus, as well, both of them ignoring Shepard's giving them a mild glare of her own.

"Spying on me, then, Liara?" the commander asked, as she let all three of them into the cabin and headed to feed her fish-something she had taken to doing almost mechanically every time she needed to by now.

"I spy on everyone, Shepard; nothing really personal, that, it's…well, technically my job now, I suppose," Liara replied with a sigh, making herself comfortable in the small sofa across from the commander's bed. Garrus took a seat across from her, stretching his legs out on the glass table in front of him, as Shepard herself joined them, sitting at the edge of her bed, the only spot with space by now.

"Is there any truth to it?" she asked Liara now, trying to make her voice sound steady and cool, but even she could hear the hope in it.

Liara hesitated. "Shepard…we saw him die, you know he didn't make it…" she started.

"I was dead too, Liara; you ought to know, you're the one who came after my body," Shepard cut her off a bit more sharply than she intended.

"Cerberus spent millions of credits trying to bring you back; and it was touch and go, but they had a goal for you and reason to spend the money, Shepard. Bringing people back from the dead is neither cheap nor easy; why bring him back?" Liara asked evenly.

"To get to me, apparently," Shepard frowned back.

Garrus scoffed. "Well, that's a very expensive piece of bait, then, Shepard; and you know it's bait for a trap, real or not. My vote is on _not_, by the way".

Shepard huffed. "I have not lost my mind, you know; and I can see the looks you two are exchanging," she frowned at the both of them-Liara tried to look guileless, probably out of reflex, though Garrus frowned right back to her grimly. "I know this is probably a trap or a scam or whatever else like that; but I intend to check it out regardless," she continued coolly.

"Shepard…whoever sent you this message, wanted you to jump at it and rush off clear across the galaxy to check it out," Liara started condescendingly.

"I am not jumping at the message, Liara and I am no fool, either, no matter what you might think. My feelings for Thane," she winced at the first mention of the name, it somehow always seemed to ache to utter it, "do not command this decision".

"Right, I'm sure they don't," Garrus rolled his eyes, though he sighed when Shepard turned to glare at him again.

"I am not going to explain my decision," Shepard said calmly, slipping into her authoritative self, the one who didn't much take impertinence from anyone under her command. "We're going to travel to the place mentioned in note; and if you two don't want to land with me, hell, I'll go alone. Even money says I've faced worse odds".

"We're not leaving you alone," Liara exclaimed, almost scandalized. "But let me…at least look into that note; see if I can find out what we're dealing with".

Shepard nodded. "You have until we get there, Liara; I am not going to sit on my thumbs and wait for answers; I prefer finding my answers for myself".

Liara shrugged. "I know that, all too well," she said calmly. "And I know how much you want Thane to be alive, I understand how you feel, Shepard; all I'm asking is that you do not let this desire overcome your common sense".

The commander nodded, after a short silence. "I know; and you know me well enough to know I can take care of myself".

"Yes, and if you fail at that, it's a good thing you have us watching your back", Garrus interjected smugly.

Shepard actually smiled faintly, the tension receding from her face, even briefly. "Or me watching your backs, Garrus; hero of the galaxy and all that," she shook her head, a bit amused despite her previous mood-that she knew would probably persist until they got to the bottom of this.

Garrus snorted. "Those who have given you the title have no idea how lousy a driver you are, Shepard," he teased, getting to his feet.

Liara followed suit, significantly less amused-this kind of banter was beyond her, after all. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked, as Garrus headed towards the elevator. Shepard nodded, the brief smile fading.

"I have no choice but to be alright, do I?"

_"I have no choice but to be alright, do I?"_

_The words echoed off the bare, metallic walls of the corridor she found herself standing in; she wasn't sure if she had said them out loud or whispered them, or even just thought them, but they echoed out all the same, louder with each passing moment until they reached what should have been an impossible crescendo and she had hold her hands over her ears to keep them out, gritting her teeth at the fact not even that seemed to help._

_She knew this corridor, she thought, drawing a deep breath when the din finally died down; an eerie, unnatural silence replaced it and she winced at the sharp, harsh sound of her own footfalls when she finally dared take a step forward. She had walked down this corridor, or perhaps many more just like it, a million times, it seemed like, ever since Harbinger had tried to worm its way into her very mind. Part of her, even now-the sensible, analytical soldier that was the very core of her being-wondered if perhaps her mind had not recovered from that; awake, she even wondered if it ever would. She knew well, after all, there were some wounds that just went too deep to heal completely; and she had received enough of those to last several lifetimes…_

_She abandoned her thoughts without much effort-somehow, they never seemed important when she was here-as she stopped in front of a pair of sliding glass doors. There was no reason to stop here, she thought absently, she didn't even recall walking here, for that matter. And it had not been like this, nothing like this, when he had died; but there he was, now, looking back at her through the glass and it wasn't doors, after all, but some sort of window; she frowned as she looked over the massive, reinforced glass pane, looking for a catch, a way in. There was none, of course, and she gave up soon, focusing on the man watching her every move as he stood stock-still on the other side, so close, so far away. He seemed resigned and grim and still, like the first time she had met him, a man well in control of himself and well at ease with his fate, whatever that might prove to be. "I love you, siha", a whisper came, faint as if it had somehow slipped through the airtight glass, making her skin prickle at the sound of his voice. Words unspoken, words they had not got the chance to exchange, words that would remain unsaid, to haunt her, at least, for the rest of her life. "I love you too", she whispered back, her words echoing down the never-ending corridor once more, turning this time into a hissing, seething mess of overlapping whispers. She didn't even notice, reaching one hand towards the glass; she felt moisture on her face that she knew to be tears and then she knew, without looking over her shoulder, that there was a fire coming down the corridor, the same way she had, coming to consume them both. All her dreams seemed to end with fire these days._

Shepard muttered a curse that would at least earn her Jack's appreciation if she were to hear it, as she started awake. Even in the ideally calibrated for comfortable warmth cabin, her skin felt clammy with sweat and downright icy to the touch. She shivered, wrapping her blankets around her as she sat up gingerly; she glanced around her, around the room, drawing deep breaths to steady herself.

"Another bloody bad dream,"she muttered into the gloom, the only light in the room coming from the dimmed luminescence of the aquarium across the bed. After all these months, with the Reapers, for the most part, gone, the nightmares still came; but she had never seen Thane before this night. She'd hardly mind another nightmare if it meant seeing him again, she thought dismally. She had braved some pretty nightmarish things in her waking time, surely a bad dream was nothing, if it meant catching another glimpse of the man she loved, even for a brief, sad moment?

She huffed to herself and this absurd train of thought, tossing the coverlets aside, as she got to her feet. Thane was gone, dead at the hands of a foe that would have been no match for him had he been at full health, and it had been his health itself that had struck the final blow; reason, cold hard logic, said she needed to get over this, or else risk her sanity. There had been so much left unsaid between them and then he was gone, and she was alone…She had put up a brave front and those who cared for her had not mentioned him to her, not once, for fear that, to discuss him, would break her when she was needed to be at her strongest; they'd probably been right, but she needed to discuss him, even now, even though she couldn't bring herself to talk about him in the past tense others employed.

She stopped suddenly, realizing she had been pacing as she thought; she frowned, glancing over to her personal terminal, the screen blinking at her, beckoning her over. She moved to the desk and sat down, scrolling down her messages till she found the one she was after.

_"Commander Shepard,_

_We have someone you're familiar with in our possession; a valuable commodity, as we understand, by the name of Thane Krios. You might say his death has been somewhat…exaggerated. If you wish to learn more, you will look for us at Erghaz in the Far Rim; you will come alone and unarmed and perhaps we can do some business"._

"So what can you give me?" Shepard went straight to the point, ignoring the puzzled glances some members present in the small meeting in the War Room were giving her and each other; if she had just one credit for every odd look she had got ever since this whole business with the Reapers and Saren had started-a bit over three years ago-she'd have enough by now to buy her own private planet, she figured. As she was used to doing by now, she ignored the ones she was getting at the moment, watching Liara who moved to the nearest terminal. A 3-D projection of a planet rotated slowly in the holographic projector, drawing everyone's attention to it, instead.

"By all accounts, Commander," Liara started, stopping the rotation of the projected planet, "the planet is uninhabited. It's a desert planet, and up to now, considered of very little consequence. Ships that chanced to explore it, reported an infestation of thresher maws, and no other signs of life. Apparently, however, the underground of the planet is rich in minerals, so there have been a couple of mining expeditions attempted, but they were quickly abandoned".

"No fucking wonder, if there're threshers down there," Vega interjected with a huff. "What's our concern with that planet anyway?" he asked.

Liara glanced quickly at Shepard. "All in good time, lieutenant," the latter replied calmly. "Carry on, Liara".

"What's this all about?" James nudged Garrus, while the asari pulled up another image-a satellite picture of some red and orange desert plains, overshadowed by what seemed to be a crimson sky.

"You heard the commander," Garrus replied smoothly. "Shut up and listen".

Liara coughed as she continued, demanding everyone's attention again. "Scans have shown that there's one abandoned mining facility, complete with a small settlement right in the middle of one of the planet's most extensive plains; the miners, as far as I can tell, called the place Crimson Plateau and used some sort of sonic cannon to keep the thresher maws away. It worked, to an extent, but they were forced to abandon the project, since they had numerous cave-ins. Apparently their sonic waves couldn't do much for thresher maws burrowing underground and causing trouble. After the miners evacuated, the facilities were taken over by Cerberus for a time. Of course, we have no clue what they were up to-or, are still up to, for that matter, in any case my sources say the place is not abandoned right now," Liara concluded with a small frown.

"Cerberus…figures," Shepard huffed, sharing the asari's frown.

"One of their detached cells, you think, running some mystery op?" Garrus asked.

"We've dealt with Cerberus wholesale, but still…"Shepard shrugged, not finishing her sentence.

"Cerberus pride themselves on the way their organization is run; small, separate cells, each operating on its own, each unaware of other cells where that served their purpose," Liara picked up. "If they're indeed there, it might be they're operating under orders that are no longer valid; perhaps we can talk them into giving us…"she continued, stopping short; if anyone was going to say this, it would need to be the one in charge, after all.

"So, basically, a remote and apparently oblivious regarding recent developments branch of Cerberus has something we want?" Diana broke the short, tense silence that had followed Liara's words, obvious excitement in her voice.

"More or less," Shepard replied drily, unwilling to actually say more in the presence of the reporter, right to veto her stories or not.

"Well, what is it? Some super-secret Reaper tech? A Prothean artifact?" the latter persisted.

"Classified intel", Shepard replied casually, turning off the holographic display herself. "We're going to need a plan to deal with the thresher maws," Garrus changed the topic smoothly.

"Not worried about Cerberus?" James smirked smugly at him.

"Not really; are you?" the turian replied in the same tone, not taking the bait.

James chuckled in response. "Good one, Scars," he teased.

"Hold up," Shepard said quietly, as Diana headed off first, waiting for the reporter to be out of the room.

"EDI, please lock this room down for a moment," she said calmly, the door lock going from green to red a short instant later.

"Ms. Allers is not pleased she is locked out," EDI announced, not sounding particularly perturbed.

"Inform her our conversation is classified and she can't be part of it," Shepard replied calmly.

"Will do, Shepard", the A.I. replied, falling silent.

"So, you gonna share that classified intel now, commander?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not really classified; just something I'd prefer to keep among as few people as possible at the moment," she replied calmly.

"Your pheromones reveal you are not as calm as you seem. Quite the contrary," Javik pointed out. "I think the term would be distressed".

She nodded with a sigh. "Correct," she admitted; there was really not much point in denying it, after all-let alone starting an argument with the Prothean. "This isn't about Cerberus or whatever they may or may not be up to," she explained, keeping her tone level. "It's…a personal operation," she continued, pulling up the text message she had received on the War Room display for Javik and James to read.

"Krios…The drell assassin, wasn't he? The one who helped save the Salarian Councillor?" James asked thoughtfully. "Your boyfriend? But he's dead…?"he paused, shooting an uncertain look at the others.

"She doesn't think so", Javik commented, rather unhelpfully. Shepard rolled her eyes.

"I'm not an idiot, Javik," she said tersely, having heard the reprimand in his voice well enough. "I'm well aware this is most likely a trap, but I still intend to look into it".

"Your species are ruled by their chemistry, clearly," the Prothean remarked rather thoughtfully; James rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, hard to pass up this kind of thing, trap or not", he nodded.

Shepard nodded in reply. "Didn't much care to let Diana in on it, though," she shrugged.

"Woman's a pest; no need for her to know," the lieutenant replied with a snort.

"Knew there was a reason I liked you, Vega," Garrus nodded approvingly.

"Pity you're not my type, Scars," James retorted amusedly.

"Pest or not, I expect with the war practically over, we'll be parting company with the press soon," Liara sighed. "Pity; Diana has been handy".

"Not the point right now, is it? You can work on recruiting her for your Shadow Broker business at another time," Garrus nudged the asari amusedly.

"Just…make sure no one outside this room knows about this," Shepard interrupted the conversation. "Cortez is in on it, as well, as is Joker; anyone else...As far as they know, we're going after some detached Cerberus cell engaged in dangerous experiments."

"The Alliance?" James asked a moment later, as the thought occurred to him.

"I'm a Spectre; I don't need to clear every single action I take with the Alliance, remember? Or the Council, for that matter," Shepard replied coolly. "If it proves to be of any concern to them, they can find out if things go well; Esheel will need to thank Thane properly, after all, she'd not be alive without him," she continued with a faint, if somewhat sad smile.

"Now, there's something I want to see; Thane will hate the formality, you know," he grinned to Shepard, who smiled again-a good thing to see, the Turian thought.

"Let him hate it all he wants; if he's alive, he can deal with it,"she shrugged. It was a big if, she thought, though she knew none of them really wanted to say it out loud.


	2. Interlude

Purgatory was, as usual, immensely popular. Creatures of all races crowded the lower bar, the extensive dance floor, even the V.I.P. area, though it seemed a large number of those who considered _that _part of the club thought twice when they caught a glimpse of a specific asari lounging on one of the luxurious sofas that occupied a large part of the club's more exclusive bar-or perhaps it was the small band of clearly armed guards standing around that particular area in a specific way that made it all too obvious they weren't at Purgatory to party.

The young drell weaving his way through the overly crowded lower bar made a face at both the insanely loud music and the strobe lights-that really didn't light up much of anything, more like cause temporary blindness to all of the place's patrons, he thought, pausing with a huff to let his eyes adjust. "_Meet me in Purgatory, at the lower bar and we can have a private conversation about something you need to know_," he muttered under his breath, huffing. There were many things one could say about Purgatory, but describing it as a place one could have a private conversation was not something that would have occurred to him. Then again, the one he had set out to meet wasn't exactly a commonplace person either, so who could really tell?

He caught a glimpse of someone waving from one of the booths in the V.I.P. part of the club and he looked around himself, to see if anyone returned the greeting-none seemed to. "Over here," he heard what seemed like a familiar voice over the extreme din-he couldn't really be sure, but he sighed anyway, heading towards the booth. He shook his head as he got close enough, taking a seat across from the other drell, who gave him a smile and pushed a glass of something purple and shimmering in front of him. "You said lower bar," he said, inspecting the sparkly drink, but not sipping from it just yet.

"Lower bar is full of human marines celebrating the victory against the Reapers," the other drell shrugged, clearly amused. "And yes, I know that was months ago; apparently humans are quite the party-people, who'd have guessed,"he added with a chuckle.

Kolyat shook his head, slightly amused. "I see," he remarked simply. "Still, not the best place to have a private conversation, Feron," he addressed the other drell, glancing about somewhat cautiously-given his father had been one of the best assassins that had ever come to pass, he was glad to put what little skills _he_ had picked up from him to use when he could.

The other drell chuckled again, clearly amused at the observation. "Please; no better place than a bar, crowded with people in various states of drunkenness to have a chat you don't want others to hear; we'd look a hell of a lot more suspicious huddled together and whispering together at the Commons, trust me".

Kolyat shook his head. "Trust you? Really? Aren't you, like, a thief and a spy or some such?" he asked coolly.

"The priests say those things?" Feron pretended to frown. "No, C-Sec, the Spectres and Commander Shepard say those things," Kolyat retorted smoothly.

Feron snorted. "They're very exaggerated; and Shepard wouldn't say that kind of thing, I helped retrieve her dead body back in the day,"he shrugged.

Kolyat rolled his eyes-an impressive thing for a drell to do. "You didn't invite me out here to tell me old tales, did you? I know all that…from my father," he said, glancing down into his glass again, before draining it in a single gulp.

"You might want to take it easy on that; I need you relatively sober here," Feron smiled faintly, producing a small datapad that he pushed towards Kolyat, much as he had the glass a few moments earlier. "Speaking of your father…"he started, as the younger drell picked up the device and read through the message on the screen hastily.

"Where…what the hell is this?"Kolyat demanded a few short moments later, all casual friendliness lost from his voice. "Keep your voice down," Feron advised quickly enough. "And you read what the message said; is it at all possible?"

Kolyat huffed. "That message is false, a fake; a hoax, most likely. I was with my father when he died, Feron, I stood over his dead body and prayed for him; Shepard was there, as well…We saw him die; it doesn't get more final than this. Is this why you asked to see me?"

Feron nodded. "This message…The Shadow Broker sent it to me to investigate; I believe you know who the Broker is now?" he asked calmly.

"The asari doctor, who's aboard the Normandy, yes," Kolyat replied, drawing deep breaths to control himself.

"Indeed; not common knowledge, though, so be careful not to mention it to just anyone".

"I am not a child, Feron", Kolyat retorted, a bit more sharply than intended.

Feron shrugged. "Compared to what I've seen and to the kind of action your father had seen, you're exactly that, Kolyat; no offense intended, just a simple statement of fact," he added quickly enough. "And anyway, I am not here to discuss that, neither are you; I'm trying to work out if this message is for real".

"It isn't and can't be; my father died right before my eyes," Kolyat repeated. "I was not…allowed to escort his body, but I saw him go; he was at peace…at long last," he glanced down into the empty glass in front of him again.

"This message was sent to Commander Shepard, a few days ago," Feron cut to the chase a few short moments later, "she hasn't got it yet, though; I expect the Alliance still filters her messages and, besides, with the Mass Relays losing some of their power, interstellar communication isn't as fast as it used to be. The Broker believes she might want to check it out, hoax or not; she and your father were…close," he concluded carefully.

Kolyat nodded, thoughtful. "He called her 'siha'; I don't think he had called anyone that after my mother. Not a term we use lightly…He loved her and so did she. I was puzzled at first, even a bit put off, with him loving an alien, but I was put off by pretty much everything he did," he grimaced. "Doesn't matter now, in any case; we made our peace and he is gone".

"What if he isn't?" Feron asked coolly.

Kolyat stared at him for a long while before answering, the perky, upbeat-emphasis on the beat-music of the club pounding around them, though it seemed everything had fallen silent, as far as they were concerned.

"Do you really think it might be possible?"Kolyat finally asked.

"I think it merits looking into more…extensively," Feron replied coolly. "You know, I kind of owe your dad; he was part of the team that saved my life from the previous Shadow Broker. I'd like the chance to even the score there".

"You mentioned investigating this; how?" Kolyat asked, though he already had a pretty good idea.

"I've already booked passage on a turian merchant vessel; paid them a handsome fee to go out of their way, just a little bit, and deposit me on that planet," Feron replied smoothly.

"Is there room for another passenger on that vessel?" Kolyat asked finally, his voice barely more than a whisper, barely audible over the din of the club as he leant forward, so that only the other drell across the table might hear.

Feron simply nodded with a smirk.


	3. Chapter 2

Shepard sighed, having just woken up…from a nightmare…again; it was actually beginning not to disturb her at all, she groaned, which was probably disturbing enough on its own. She was becoming accustomed to the constant restlessness that made a good night's sleep elude her almost every single night; hell, if she did manage to get a good night's sleep at this point, she reasoned she'd be speechless with surprise the next day. Not that a restful night was likely to occur any time soon, she mused, more than a little sarcastically, as she pulled free of her blankets and got to her feet. On the up side, she continued her musing, as she mechanically rummaged her footlocker for a towel and headed for the shower, she was well aware of the cause for her restlessness this time-at least she hoped she was.

"Shepard is awake again," EDI announced, sounding none too pleased. The small group cloistered in the lounge at the Crew Deck all looked towards the A.I. in her humanoid form; she frowned at the collective attention.

"If she wanders down here, like she sometimes does…" Joker started with a sigh, "…I will let you know," EDI finished the sentence seamlessly. "Though I am unclear as to why this clandestine meeting, excluding Shepard herself, was required," she added.

Everyone fell silent at the remark for a few moments, before finally, Garrus snorted. "It's not really secret, EDI; we're just concerned for her,"he said with a shrug.

"Shouldn't you address those concerns with her? If my understanding of organics' relevant social patterns is accurate, proper etiquette suggests she should be included in this kind of conversationl; or am I mistaken?" the A.I. persisted, looking at Garrus intently.

"Technically, you're not mistaken," Joker picked up the conversation, as Garrus exchanged a look with Tali, who didn't seem too inclined to get in the middle of this-given her race's history with the Geth, it stood to reason the Quarian felt just a bit uncomfortable with EDI's observations. "This is just…special circumstances; the Commander has been through a lot lately…"

"Only lately?" Garrus snorted.

"Yeah, well, by lately, I kinda mean the last 4 years or so," Joker rolled his eyes. "Anyway, the thing is, she's been through a lot. Now, this damned message comes in and it's got her on edge again. Not that she's ever been able to relax, mind you; I actually thought we'd all get some downtime after the Reapers".

"Sure; you're so optimistic, Joker," Garrus chuckled, the pilot grinning back to him.

"I know; hopeless optimist, that's me," he said amusedly.

"In any case, you two have strayed from the subject," Liara interceded, shaking her head , somewhat amused as well, despite herself.

"The point in all this is that, if you are planning to try to talk the Commander out of this," Javik interrupted from his spot by the open shutters, where he stood, watching the stars swoop past the Normandy, "you might want to consider saving your breath. She is not one to change her mind, once she's set on a course. And despite her external feigned cool, she is literally bursting with…well, hopefulness".

"Javik is right. Shepard's hormonal and stress levels are highly elevated, the increase in her stats occurring shortly after that message arrived. I do not have the capacity to scan for hopeful feelings, but I'd say she is on edge, more than she has been ever since the Reapers were dealt with; the spike in physiological chemical activity is quite noticeable," EDI concurred with a sharp nod.

"And that is why we're all here without her," Garrus sighed wistfully. "She doesn't need to have this conversation right now, but we kind of do," he nodded towards Liara, who nodded back, knowing what he expected to hear.

"I've got nothing," she frowned, not too pleased with what she was saying. "I've got someone looking into this message, like I'd told Shepard I'd do, but the last I heard from him was that he was headed to the Citadel, to check with the doctors at Huerta Memorial; he's been out of reach since then, which generally means he's on to something, if I know him well enough-and I do- but he has not contacted me and me trying to get in touch seems to get me only static".

"Well, I got in touch with some old friends at C-Sec, as well," Garrus sighed. "Called in a few favours and, believe me, after us helping with the Citadel coup, not to mention the Reapers, I've got a lot of favours to play with; according to all of them, Thane's body was released shortly after we had to leave the Citadel; Kolyat didn't escort him, but the docking manifest said he was headed back to the Hanar homeworld. Trail goes cold after that, but no surprise there; no one could spare resources to track any kind of cargo, let alone a dead body at the time".

"No one would have spared resources regardless; there was no call for it, reasonably, cargo management is pretty routine procedure in almost every planet," Tali spoke up for the first time, sounding thoughtful. Everyone nodded their agreement. "Do we know if Thane reached his homeworld, though?" she asked.

"Damn good question; with the mass relays impaired, we have no way to ask the Hanar and, even if we did, I wonder if they'd be able to help. It was the middle of a war, after all, and you can expect docking manifests to slip through the cracks under such circumstances. Unless you have someone on the Hanar homeworld, Liara?" Garrus shrugged.

Liara nodded, though a bit grimly. "I do, actually; a lot of Hanar worked for the old Shadow Broker, some have returned to their homeworld both before and after the Reaper situation was resolved. I've got a few messages sent, but, as you say, Garrus, tracking down that kind of information is not easy. I don't really expect they'll come up with anything useful".

"This conversation is pointless," Javik huffed, turning around to face the others. "You have no leads at all, other than that message that was sent to Shepard; and it is a trap, make no mistake about that. There is nothing you can do to stop her from looking into this, and this you know as well. Even if you came up with hard evidence it's a trap, she would still go look for herself. We should be discussing a way to deal with the trouble that will surely find us and keep Shepard and ourselves safe; to escape the Reapers only to be destroyed by a clumsy trap is at least foolish".

"Geez, talk about being optimistic there," Joker rolled his eyes.

Javik shot him a killer look. "Optimism is highly overrated by your primitive civilizations; I prefer practicality".

Joker rolled his eyes and was about to retort when Ashley shook her head at him not to. Trying to win any sort of argument with Javik was pretty much pointless and, besides, quite irrelevant at the moment.

"Much as I hate to admit it, Javik is right," the lieutenant commander sighed now. The Prothean inclined his head, either surprised or merely conceding, as she continued. "Shepard…from what I understand, Thane meant a lot to her; trap, hoax, bad joke or not, she will go after this. Unless Liara comes up with hard evidence that this is not what it claims to be, we're going to be landing on that unknown planet before long and, when that happens, it'd be nice to have a plan…for when things get screwed up".

"Which they will, and pretty fast at that; we have a knack for finding trouble in the unlikeliest places," Garrus put in with a bemused sigh. "In any case…I think what Ashley is right; Javik as well…hell, all of us, since I bet we're all down here in the dead of night for the same reason. If this goes sideways and we all know the odds are that it will, we may need to protect Shepard". He paused with a chuckle. "If she heard me saying this, she'd probably throw me out of the airlock-thanks, Javik, for giving her ideas there," he paused, giving the Prothean a smirk that the latter snorted at, "but she's bent over backwards to help the lot of us plenty of times over the years we've known her. About damn time we do the same".


	4. Chapter 3

The small, uninhabited planet seemed even more desolate, inhospitable and dismal than the digital images they had seen-and those had seemed pretty bleak, to be sure, but they did no justice to the actual locale. Rocky crevasses of rock so dark red it almost seemed black-until one squinted their eyes and looked a bit closer-alternated with flat expanses of baked orange-tinged earth, dotted with the occasional darker-shaded dunes where-presumably- thresher maws burrowed in and out of the ground. All that was overshadowed by a bloody red, sunless sky that rendered the landscape into an even grimmer, almost ominous red haze of a light that seemed to restrict visibility and confuse distances remarkably. It was impossible to tell if the next dune that the naked eye meandered to was a few paces away or a few dozen miles.

The shuttle landed, a little less aptly than usual in a small crevice between two rocky hills of crimson stone, a good distance from their destination. "Sorry about that landing; hard to judge distances in this light," Cortez sighed.

"Yeah, not one of your best there," teased, though he was not in the mood for jokes himself. "This is got to be one of the most gloomy planets I've ever set foot on," the large lieutenant remarked, as he stepped out of the shuttle first, wanting to look around. "You need to blink constantly just to make sure your eyes haven't gone out on you," he snorted.

"Use your helmet filter, Jimmy," Garrus pointed out, coming outside himself. "Won't take away the red glare completely, but you'll at least be able to see where you're stepping…Wouldn't want you stepping into a thresher maw because you were blinking," he added, unable to resist the teasing.

James chuckled. "Why are we landing half a planet away, anyway?" he asked, glancing back into the shuttle where Shepard and the others were still gearing up-Shepard busy on the shuttle terminal, frowning at something on the screen.

Everyone had wanted to come along; Shepard herself had been inclined to go alone, as per the message's demand, but pretty much everyone else had argued against that. It had taken more than a fair amount of convincing and a lot of active arguing to get her to let some of her squad tag along-but the commander was clearly not too well-pleased at having been overruled there. She was enough on edge with this mission and the all-too tantalizing prospect of it being exactly what it promised to be to want to add concern for her squad-her friends- if it all turned out to be a trap. And, of course, everyone pretty much sensed that, knowing her as well as they did, and in some cases, like, say Javik and EDI, actually physically sensing something was amiss.

"We're landing half a planet away," she finally said now, abandoning the computer, "because we don't want to alert Cerberus or whoever else is out there that we've arrived. They're expecting me, alone, and that's what they need to think they're getting". She paused, checking the ammo in the pistol she was carrying, before continuing. "If this is a trap, we're setting one of our own; and secondly, EDI ran a few thermal scans of the planet, especially the part of it that concerns us and there's extensive thresher maw activity underground. Flying a shuttle right over a valley full of thresher maws…would attract attention we're better off without".

"No kidding," Vega muttered back, glancing out to the impressive vista ahead; it seemed peaceful, he thought, too peaceful for that matter, but they knew better. "Won't thresher maws be coming after us regardless?" he asked now. "I mean, bad to go in by shuttle, OK, but running from threshers on foot…"

"Thresher maws detect vibrations on the surface, yeah, but it's unlikely they'll detect the sparse footsteps of people on foot through the plains," Garrus shrugged. "If you feel the ground shaking, though, run as fast as you can towards the nearest rocky patch of earth you can see," he continued coolly.

"Reassuring," James rolled his eyes amusedly.

"I try," Garrus retorted with a faint smirk.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, Scars, but your bedside manner sucks," Vega replied smoothly.

"Enough chatter; we need to go over the plan," Shepard said, a bit more sharply than normally, giving both males a frown as she did so.

"Why bother? You know our plans rarely ever work as they're supposed to, Shepard," Garrus smiled back at her.

Her frown didn't dissipate; if anything, it grew just a bit more ominous. "Garrus, I am really not in the mood for levity right now; this is more likely to be a trap than what it seems to be and I don't want to take any chances. Sass me right now and you're staying in the shuttle, I'm sure Cortez will appreciate the company".

"Not really, no," Cortez shook his head, coming to the shuttle door to see what was going on. He shrugged apologetically to the glare Shepard gave him over her shoulder.

"Fine, fine, let's go over the plan already," Garrus sighed casually. "But you know I'm not staying behind, Shepard, even if you order me; and strictly speaking, you have no authority to do that".

"Right, so the plan," Liara stepped in before Shepard could retort to Garrus-and she was well on her way to do precisely _that_, she could tell. "The Commander goes in on her own, taking the most direct approach to the compound; go slowly, let them see you coming in," she nodded to Shepard, who nodded back. "While whoever there have their attention focused on Shepard, we break into two groups; Garrus and Javik take the back route approach EDI mapped out after comprehensive scans of the surrounding area and make their way to the rear of the compound; once there, they can provide support to the Commander and take out any lurking hostiles. Meanwhile, me and Lieutenant Vega will shadow Shepard, but keep a safe distance from the compound, and rendezvous with the other team once she has made contact".

"Nice and simple," Vega shrugged.

"Yeah, and it will go wrong in more ways than we can predict, probably; be ready for anything," Shepard herself sighed a short moment later. "Sorry for snapping at you, Garrus," she added with a sigh.

"No worries, Shepard; you're on edge and it is understandable," the turian smiled back. "Do me a favour, though…be careful out there," he added with a sigh of his own.

She nodded. "Will do; same goes for all of you; now, let's get this done". Now that they had actually arrived here, it was almost impossible to control her impatience, she thought with a sigh, as she started off first, moving slowly away from the shuttle in a slow, careful place.

In the distance, and with the help of the specialized filters EDI and Garrus had managed to program into the ground team's helmets and visors, she thought she could see the glare of the crimson sun bouncing off something metallic; it was in the direction of the mining settlement, to be sure, but there was no way to tell for sure, the way distances and light played games with the eye here. She glanced over her shoulder back towards the shuttle, where the other two teams were preparing to move; Garrus raised his rifle in farewell, before he and Javik headed off in the opposite direction, moving away from the shuttle and her.

This was most likely exactly what the turian and most of the others were pretty much convinced it was: some well-planned ambush for yet another party that wanted a piece of Commander Shepard to get their hands on her, she thought, a little gloomily; and yet, there she was, walking right into that possibility…and not being able to control or quench the rogue hope in her heart that what the message had promised to entice her here was true.

"Human nature for you," she murmured to herself, focusing on the trek that lay ahead of her. The expanse of packed crimson, lifeless earth that spread out before her, as she left the narrow rocky cliff side seemed almost too quiet; had she not known what lay beneath the surface, she might have considered the landscape almost serene. As it were, she knew she would need to be exceedingly careful crossing the no-man's land to her destination-and for more reasons than one.

The mining settlement looked like any other similar settlement they had seen around the galaxy, Shepard thought as she drew closer, taking it slowly; she still had a way to go, but she could make out key features of the place she was headed for. A large, solid metal construction with no visible windows dominated the center of the small, neat arrangement of buildings. Previous experience said that it had been put up first, for the express purpose of safeguarding the mining tunnels stretching beneath. Said tunnels, aside from mining, could be used for a variety of purposes and, more importantly at the moment, could easily be used to conceal a whole army out of sight. Shepard winced at the thought, reflexively checking her weapons, as she walked on.

There were smaller buildings, arranged in a small, tight cluster around the central facility; container-sized, standard expedition-type housing and perhaps research units, as far as she could tell. The way they had been set up bespoke of defensibility and a desire not to allow the settlement to spread out too far.

Four metallic towers stood roughly on either corner of the small, spare settlement. Shepard checked her omni-tool, confirming what she already knew: there was a low frequency signal transmitting from each of the towers, the vibration covering a good distance surrounding the mining expedition's buildings. As far as her scan could tell, the signal created a solid square of protection around the settlement; recalling what Liara had briefed them about, she knew that protection didn't reach more than a few metres below ground. She ignored the occasional minor tremors she felt as she crossed into range of the sub-sonics, more concerned with the seemingly abandoned complex that now stood a bit too close for comfort.

She made for the main building, keeping a watchful, practiced eye around her for any sigh of movement, however small. There was none she could see and her equipment seemed to agree with her senses. Perhaps this had been a red herring after all, or perhaps the message had been sent some time ago and whoever had been the sender had moved on by now-a thought that made her heart sink just a little bit, even though cold reason said it had probably never been a real chance anyway.

The sound of a mechanized door open, deafening in the otherwise eerie quiet of the small compound made her start, her assault rifle drawn and ready in the span of half a heartbeat. She had paused at the foot of the worn metallic ramp leading up to the mining building and moved to the side, by the solid metal railings, where cover was handy.

A small contingent of heavily armored men filed out of the door, forming a line between her and the doorway behind them, the door sliding shut with a hiss behind them. They carried heavy weapons-no less than what Shepard herself was carrying- which made the Commander frown, though she wasn't overly concerned; she had faced far worse odds, after all, she knew, her trained eye already scanning the hostile force for weaknesses. Some bore Cerberus insignia on their armor, she noticed, which wasn't exactly reassuring, but she had been expecting it.

She stepped out of her improvised cover as one of the men stepped forward, coming halfway down the ramp to meet her; none of them had weapons drawn, so she lowered her rifle, though she made no motion of putting it away.

"Commander Shepard?" the man asked, pretending not to notice, though he watched her as intently as she was watching him and his comrades.

"That's me," she said coolly. "I believe you have a package for me". She made sure to keep her tone neutral, and just a bit cold- if they didn't already know, there was no reason to let them know how much their '_commodity_', as they had called it, meant to her. In fact, letting them know could make things take a turn for the worse and she couldn't afford that right now.

"Package? A friend of yours, a valuable companion and member of your crew and you refer to him that way?" the man asked, clearly amused. "You're stone-cold, Shepard; I like that," he nodded his approval.

She shrugged as indifferently as she could manage-and it wasn't easy, part of her wanted to just shoot the lot of them and then storm the mining tunnels…see if they really had the man they said they did. Javik was right, damn him, she thought; she was too emotional in this and getting it under control wasn't as easy as any other mission she had been on. She drew in a deep breath before rolling her eyes at the man still watching her.

"I don't have all day," she said drily. "And I want my friend back, make no mistake. But I don't give a damn about pleasantries. You wanted to do business, so get on with it. What do you want?"

The man nodded back towards his men and the door behind them. "Why don't we move this conversation inside?" he suggested.

Shepard glanced around, at the abandoned settlement, before turning her gaze back to the man across from her. "Why don't we stay right out here? Afraid someone will overhear us?" she asked, a bit sarcastically. Walking blindly inside a series of mining tunnels, with who knew how many hostiles might be waiting to gun her down or worse was a mistake not even a rookie would make, after all.

The man shrugged. "We don't mean you any harm, Commander; if we did, someone would have shot you down as you came close, we've had eyes on you the whole time. As for going inside…Your friend has undergone some rather serious surgical procedures, he isn't exactly mobile; and I figured you'd like to see him before we deal".

Shepard almost swore under her breath; she should have seen this coming, she huffed inwardly, of course they'd not bring Thane-still, assuming they had him-outside for her and her team to conveniently grab and run if-when- things went south. Garrus was going to kill her for this, she was sure-unless he was too happy to be proven right when saying their plan would get screwed up somewhere along the line, she thought, grimly amused, before nodding to the man.

"Fine, let's go," she said coolly.

The small line of armed men broke apart, the door behind them opening with the ominous sound it seemed to like to make again. Shepard took the opportunity to type a quick command into her omni-tool, hoping to let EDI know what was going on, before following the men inside the mining tunnels.


	5. Chapter 4

"I do not like this place," Javik remarked grimly, pausing, along with Garrus on a small ridge overlooking the mining settlement that was their destination. Both of them took care to keep behind some rocky outcrops that lined the cliffside, keeping out of sight, without either of them mentioning it; they were both soldiers, after all, trained in battle and both their instincts said the same things when it came to staying alive.

"Yes, me neither," Garrus huffed back, leaning out of their makeshift cover to look ahead through the scope of his sniper rifle. The settlement seemed awfully quiet, and he could see no sign of any movement at all, which did very little to reassure him. "There could be a whole army down there, hiding out, waiting for us to walk right into them".

"Small problem, that," Javik shrugged back, motioning towards a small, almost invisible path that seemed to lead downwards and into the neatly arranged group of containers that formed the settlement. Garrus nodded, letting the Prothean take point, as they went down carefully.

They had just reached the first buildings, skirting one of the impressive-looking sonic towers that stood guard at every corner of the tightly arranged compound, when a short, laconic almost, message from EDI stopped both of them in their tracks.

"Shepard made contact; she is going into the mining tunnels," the A.I. huffed into their communicators, sounding distinctly displeased; Garrus found himself sharing her annoyance, alright.

"What the hell is she doing, going in there on her own?" he groaned in response.

"I don't know, and I couldn't really ask her, she messaged in a hurry and I can't raise her now," EDI replied, sounding more than a little concerned, not to mention annoyed.

"She was supposed to stay where we could see her at all times," Liara sighed through her own communicator.

"Yeah, sure, as if the Commander ever does anything she's supposed to," Vega chimed in.

"Where are you two? Why did you not intercept her?"Garrus all but snapped at the both of them.

"We were keeping some distance, as per the plan, Garrus," Liara replied evenly. "We got on site as she was going inside with a small group of armed men".

"Great," Garrus huffed back. "What kind of armed men, did you get the chance to see?"

"Some had Cerberus marks on their gear, as far as I could tell; none seemed too hostile. Armed and armoured, but the only one with a gun in her hands was Shepard," Vega reported with the practiced manner of a soldier doing so for a superior officer.

"This keeps getting better and better," Garrus sighed.

"This place feels very…wrong," Javik cut into the conversation; the Prothean had not been paying attention to the radio chatter, opting instead to scanning their immediate surroundings and he did not seem at ease at all. "There is something…vibrating in the air, I am assuming it's the signal from those towers keeping the thresher maws away," he continued. "It's casting a sort of web over my senses, it's rather annoying."

"Are you OK, Javik?" Liara asked.

"Yes, asari…Liara," the Prothean replied at the common slip of the tongue, rolling his eyes-a rather impressive sight, given he had four of those. "I'll be used to it in a moment; but we are not alone out here," he added for everyone to hear.

"Hostiles?"Garrus asked, turning his full attention to his teammate.

"I do not know, I cannot tell; they're not in these first buildings, they are cold and empty and have been so for some time now," Javik replied.

"Right, going into radio silence, Liara, Jimmy," Garrus said into his comm. "Emergency communication only, you two go ahead and get as close to that mining building as you can; then stand by," he continued.

"Will do; you two be careful too," Liara replied, the channel going quiet a moment later.

Javik and Garrus both moved past the first few buildings, moving with well-practised ease from cover to cover, both keeping a watchful eye on their surrounding area without needing a word spoken between them. There _still_ was no movement of any kind, Garrus thought uneasily, other than the occasional minor tremors he felt from deep underground that only served to make him even more uneasy. Shepard, in underground mining tunnels, alone, with possible hostiles-an unknown number thereof-in an area infested with thresher maws…He groaned, rolling his eyes at the compilation.

"Yes, that is all pretty bad," Javik commented, his dismal tone reflecting Garrus' own thoughts at the moment.

"What?" the Turian asked, startled.

"You're worried for Shepard and I can easily enough recount the reasons", Javik huffed back. "And yes, this is very bad; I told you all, she is not thinking too clearly in this. She has just committed a series of strategic mistakes, all at once," he continued grimly.

"For humans, it's not as simple as that. As you so often say, they are often guided by their chemistry and their emotions; Shepard's haven't led her or any of us astray so far, so let's give her the benefit of the doubt."

Javik snorted, but had no time to answer; something seemed to move suddenly, a good way from their current hiding spot, almost at the back of the mining facility proper. The Prothean nodded in the direction of the movement, Garrus nodding at once.

"Saw it," he confirmed in a sharp whisper, rushing ahead to the next defensible spot. Javik was quick to follow.

"They are not aware of us; and there are not many of them," he informed his partner. "They're probably expecting trouble, though…they're on edge," he added.

"Yeah, well, they're right in that respect, they _are_ getting trouble," the Turian replied smoothly, edging closer to the spot they had seen the movement.

It was yet another of those container-sized habitats, unremarkable in every way, except the fact that, unlike most of the clearly intended for housing similar constructions around the small settlement, it had no windows of any kind-a blessing and a curse, that, Garrus thought, he and Javik carefully sweeping past the small building to reach the door that was uncomfortably at the far end of it. The two of them, pistols in hand, hoping to make as little noise as possible, each hugged a side of the sliding doors, Javik nodding to Garrus to open it when they were both in place.

The metal panels slid into the walls almost soundlessly…and the two of them found themselves looking down the barrel of three pistols, though it was clear the other party had not expected the company.

And neither party had expected the other, for that matter.

"What the…?"Garrus started, blinking at the familiar faces, before lowering his firearm first. Two of the others followed suit almost immediately, the third holding his position till Javik, responding to a reassuring nod from Garrus lowered his firearm, though it was pretty clear he had no wish to do so.

"Do you know them?" the Prothean promptly asked, eyeing the other party suspiciously.

Garrus nodded, just as the woman snorted amusedly. "Of course he does", she said airily, grinning to the Turian amusedly. "Long time, no see, Garrus," she said cheerfully.

"Kasumi; no offense, but you're pretty much the last person I'd expect to see here," he replied, before looking at the other two in her company. "Well, maybe the third to last person".

The drell in the rather fancy-looking white trenchcoat chuckled at the remark. "Good to see you too, Vakarian, I believe," he said smoothly, Kolyat nodding as well, while trying to keep an eye on Javik, however. The Prothean finally holstered his pistol, as well, folding his arms across his chest impatiently. Garrus rolled his eyes.

"Javik, this is Kasumi Goto, a friend…and a Master Thief, you might want to watch your pockets," the latter started the introductions. "These two are also friends; Feron, he works for Liara, in a sense and Kolyat, he is Thane Krios' son."

"And that's the Prothean," Kasumi beamed, looking over Javik so intently the latter glared at her-not that it stopped her. "We didn't have the pleasure of meeting before, charmed," she grinned.

"Same here; well, perhaps not exactly charmed, more like intrigued," Feron was quick to add smoothly, moving past them all to close the door again; the container was cool and somewhat dark now, but no one seemed to mind.

"I take it we're all here for the same thing," the agent said suavely, doing away with the pleasantries in his easy manner, before motioning everyone into what seemed like a small, sparse sitting room, lined with practical-looking sofas and not much else.

"We don't really have time to sit down and chat, you know," Garrus rolled his eyes at the gesture.

"Garrus?" Liara's voice on the comm. came through, unexpectedly. "Status report, if you please?"

"Hey, Liara," Feron called into the comm, before Garrus got the chance to speak up.

"Feron?" Liara asked, not believing her ears, apparently. "How…What are you doing here?"

"Apparently, he's here doing what we're doing," Garrus finally got a word in. "He's not alone, either; Kolyat is here, as well as Kasumi."

"The young drell is not…at ease with this; he is nervous…untested," Javik said quietly.

Kolyat frowned at him. "If that message is real, it's my father's life on the line, Prothean; I am not as untested as you think."

"The kid can hold his own," Feron confirmed calmly. "And if he can't, well, we'll do it for him," he added ignoring the terse look Kolyat gave him. "Either way, we have bigger problems to deal with; what the hell is Shepard thinking, going with those Cerberus mercs?" he continued, frowning at the other two.

There was a heavy sigh through the communicator. "Not part of our plan," Liara said flatly a moment later.

"Well, our plan was better, clearly," Kasumi said suavely. "Feron would scout out the place and, if It all proved on the level, if they really have Thane, I'd go in and spirit him out. We were sure we'd be done with this before you lot turned up, too."

"Us lot?" Garrus gave her a vexed look. "I seem to recall you were a part of '_us lot'_ not too long ago, Miss Goto", he shook his head.

"We were trying…well, we would try to get Thane out on our own-assuming he is down there, which I personally doubt," Feron picked up, "before Shepard got to come here; in case this was a trap. We figured we had more time to do what we came for; I even enlisted Kasumi's help, since, let's face it, in such cases, a master thief is always needed."

"Last I heard from you, you were at the Citadel, chasing down leads," Liara said thoughtfully.

"I was; got in touch with the medical staff at Huerta, spoke to the dock-masters, C-Sec-that took some doing, they don't like me much-even tracked down Kolyat to ask what had happened with Thane after he died. Nothing panned out, so I decided I needed…a different approach. Last I heard, Shepard was sent off on some stray Reaper forces across the galaxy. Got to admit, I thought those would keep you all busy just a bit longer," Feron sighed.

"After London, a few stray Reaper creatures are nothing to write home about," Garrus snorted. "Plus, Shepard was in a hurry to get here; you get the picture."

The drell nodded, almost solemnly. "Indeed; anyway, to cut a long story short, I was able to get a message to Kasumi, via my own contacts, we boarded a turian trade freighter and here we are," he concluded suavely.

"Got around to doing any recon yet?" Garrus asked, glancing to Kasumi, who smirked back under her hood.

"Remember who you're talking to, Garrus; of course we did. I managed to cloak myself and sneak inside the mining facility proper twice already. I saw no sign of Thane, but they have some serious medical equipment squirreled away down there; no use for that sort of thing in a mining expedition. I was also able to procure some blueprints of the tunnels…they're significantly more extensive than usual mining expeditions."

"Well, intel on this place does say the underground is uncommonly rich in minerals, so that figures," Garrus nodded in response. "What about manpower?" he asked.

"Not too many, but well-armed; of course I can't really vouch for the totality of the tunnels, though, and I did see some non-militant personnel down there, as well," the thief replied calmly.

"We need a way in there; and we need a way in that doesn't alert them to our presence or, for that matter, put Shepard at risk," Garrus groaned.

"You say this is a master thief?"Javik asked, examining Kasumi in his turn.

The woman inclined her head. "Not just a master thief; the master thief," she amended airily.

"Well, then," Javik shrugged, not really impressed by her tone, "surely you can break in the mining facility again and let us in…quietly."

Kasumi chuckled. "Yes, I can do that; pretty easily, at that," she said simply.


	6. Chapter 5

His memories did not seem as crystal clear as he knew they should be.

For the first time in as long he could remember, there were gaps, pieces missing from the vivid kaleidoscope of his exceptional, eidetic memory. Their absence felt inherently, almost fundamentally wrong; to make it worse, the more he tried to fit the remaining pieces into some kind of orderly arrangement, the more coherence seemed to ebb away.

He remembered the hospital, of course; that he remembered perfectly, down to the last detail. He remembered being carried there during the Citadel coup, after he had been injured by that second-rate Cerberus assassin; he had not been in his best shape, else the human wouldn't have stood a chance but, as it were, he had got lucky in stabbing him. A lucky shot, made possible by his own mistake, he assessed coolly, briefly replaying the duel in his mind in perfect sequence. It hadn't mattered, though, and it really didn't matter now.

He remembered lying in that hospital bed, feeling his life ebb away slowly, surely, inevitably. He didn't want to go, definitely not that way, though he had made it seem he was at peace; not entirely false, part of him had come to terms with the irreversibility of his condition over the years. Part of him wanted to fight it tooth and nail, much as he knew she wanted to do-desperate, impossible odds or not.

She had been there, at the hospital, during those final moments. He recalled her in perfect clarity, the way she looked, dashing, despite the grimy, blooded armour-or perhaps because of it, his siha, a force to be reckoned with…and so much more besides. He always seemed to get lost in memories of her, picturing her with excruciating detail in his mind's eye and he never wanted to rush those memories, relishing them, her presence, even in this solitary, lonely way.

She had looked grim at the hospital and he had heard her yelling at some of the medical staff, though he had never picked up the words over his own struggle to take one more breath, to see her one last time before he was gone; but there had been no mistaking her voice, rising over every other sound. She had prayed with him and his son and _he_ had prayed for her, knowing what it was she was facing…and that she would be facing it without him.

Thane Krios remembered those last few moments of his life-and what had come before that- in perfect and complete clarity.

It was after he had closed his eyes for the last time, slipping away into a cool, comforting darkness that he knew he would never come out of again, that memory seemed to fail him; and it was those memories he needed, in his search for answers now.

He had emerged from the cool dark eventually to a fragmented world. He remembered broken images: a cold, semi-dark container that he had determined to be a cryo tank, after recalling it in his mind a few times; a small, bright room he couldn't look directly into, as he was on his back; disembodied voices discussing him in cool tones; himself whispering '_siha_' in the dark, as if she could hear him, only he knew she couldn't; mind-numbing pain in his chest, attacking him before everything faded to black again…

Fractured images that he found impossible to put in any kind of order, but he remembered them vividly, nonetheless, and they teased his very sanity on more than one occasions.

He opened his eyes slowly, knowing what he would see outside the province of his own mind wouldn't have changed any more than his nonsensical, tantalizing memories weren't about to become coherent for his benefit.

He was still in that unknown room that none of his memories-fragmented or whole- could really place. It was a small square cube of durable, unbreakable glass on three sides, as far as he could tell, equipped with basic living commodities. A cot stood at the far end of the space, against a solid, unremarkable metal wall; a desk was across from it, along with the plush lounging chair he was currently using.

There was some medical equipment neatly placed in the room, as well. A small supply of medi-gel, efficiently stacked on the small desk, along with some applicators. An oxygen device-human in origin, as far as he could tell, heavy looking but serviceable enough. Bandages, also neatly stacked near the medi-gel. Some more apparatus he had seen in Huerta Memorial before, but had no idea what it was for-nor did he really much care.

The assassin felt a stab in his chest and instinctively touched the heavy dressings covering him from just under the arms and all the way down to his ribs. He drew in a deep breath, relieved, as ever, at how easy breathing had become; it was a wonderful feeling, after having spent so much time checking every breath, laboring for every painful gulp of air, to be able to inhale without aching at the very effort.

A young woman, human, gave him a faint smile from her post outside the glass, as she paused by a computer screen that he couldn't see to check his vitals. He nodded back. He had seen that girl before, after all, and this was a memory he had no gaps in.

_It was after he had woken up for the last time, to find himself in this very room, lying in the cot, a few machines attached to him. He had lain still, though he looked around as best he could-an assassin's instinct, to check out his surroundings._

_The girl had been standing a short distance off, using her omni-tool on some of the machinery; two more people, both older, both with clearly more authority, were deep in conversation at the foot the cot._

"_How did it go?" the one asked, glancing furtively at the still figure on the bed._

"_It couldn't have gone better," the other replied confidently. "We had to use some drugging agents to deal with his eidetic memory…just in case things don't turn out the way we expect, not that it would matter anyway. If the Reapers win this, we're all screwed and one drell recognising us won't make much difference to anything. Can't believe the Illusive Man did this," he shook his head._

"_Never mind him right now", the other man cut him off rather abruptly. "Tell me about the operation"._

"_Well, the procedure was very complicated, not to mention very experimental; but we got it right, I think. It'll take some observation and he is not going to be mobile for a bit-being dead when we got him and all-but this technology will make us a lot of credits when we sell it. It'll save a lot of lives, as well," the first man said, pleased._

"_Yeah…And if we manage to get out of this alive, we'll have one more thing to ensure we can collect those credits; you know who this drell is, right?"the second doctor asked smoothly._

"_Yes, sir; I did some digging when I heard we were going to utilise elements of the Lazarus project for this one," the doctor admitted airily. "Commander Shepard will help us, if she wants to see her friend alive again; and she will, our psych profiles say she would never give up on a comrade"._

_Siha, Thane thought numbly; it made sense, that these people would try to use him to get to her._

"_He's waking up," the girl monitoring him spoke up suddenly, making both the men pause their conversation to look at her. "Dose him with some more anaesthetic," one instructed swiftly. He heard something beep somewhere in the room and then his eyes closed on him again._

He watched the girl now, as she finished her checks and stalked off towards a door a good way from his cell of glass and steel; he thought he glimpsed rock beyond, a tunnel of some sorts before the door closed behind her, but he couldn't be sure. A beeping sound informed him the V.I. that monitored his vitals when none of the humans were around was now active, which meant they were watching him from somewhere.

He wished he knew how long he had been here, wherever here was; and he caught himself wishing he could get some news, about the Reapers, about what was going on out there, beyond this place…about the woman he loved, though he was not going to ask after her; he knew better, after all, than to risk such a question, a question that might put her at risk.

Assuming she was alive, he thought grimly.

He'd need to find a way out of here eventually, he decided, and find out for himself. Whatever these people's plans were involving him, he was well past the time he allowed his body, his very self to be a weapon for others to use; he frowned dangerously, ignoring the next spasm of pain in his chest.

He owed these people for curing him, yes, but he didn't owe them enough to allow them to put the ones he really cared for at risk. And he was not one to sit idly by, helpless, while others determined _his_ fate. Shepard, he thought, allowing himself a brief glimpse of memories of her, had changed that a long time ago.


	7. Chapter 6

Commander Shepard glanced back to the now shut door behind her, not without some apprehension, though she made sure it wasn't visible. The man who had negotiated with her stood by her side, giving her an encouraging, if shifty smile, his comrades moving away to remove their helmets and their weapons as well.

Shepard noticed the neat weapon racks lining the small antechamber that stood just past the entrance to the mining complex; the men seemed to arrange their gear with practiced ease, she thought, which was probably the case. Her escort joined them briefly, setting his own helmet and rifle in one of the spaces before returning to her.

He was older than she had thought, a stately-looking man with a bit of gray in his temples. His expression was grim, though not unfriendly and he had not stopped watching her for a single moment, through knowing, steel-gray eyes that seemed to peer into her soul.

He reminded her a bit of Admiral Anderson, she thought vaguely; the same portly demeanour, the same air of authority. His men all looked to him for instruction once they were done with tidying up their equipment, but he merely shrugged to them, his full attention on Shepard.

"As you can see, Commander," he said coolly, striding back to where she still stood, her back to the door, "I wasn't lying when I said we mean you no harm; mind following our lead and leaving your weapons out here?"

Shepard snorted, putting her rifle away in order to remove her helmet, that she promptly placed in the nearest empty spot, passing by her guide to do so. "My weapons stay with me," she said smoothly, her tone revealing she was not about to be argued with.

The older man shrugged. "Didn't think you'd agree to that, but I had to ask," he said suavely, not at all disgruntled by her refusal, it seemed. "Just…do me a favour and try not to shoot anything dangerous; there're a lot of volatile elements down here and there're thresher maws dangerously close to the lower levels; don't need to explain much more than that, do I?" he sighed.

Shepard nodded grimly. "No need, yeah; we already scanned the planet coming in," she said casually.

"Of course you did," the man nodded, somewhat appreciatively. "Glad you're living up to your reputation, Commander; it means you might be reasonable enough to negotiate with us".

She frowned slightly. "You keep mentioning negotiations, but I don't even know your name or who you people are; let alone whether you really have the man you say you do," she said tersely. "I don't negotiate blind".

The older man nodded, running a hand through his short-cropped hair before answering. "Well, all in good time, ma' am," he said coolly. "I can answer your first two questions easily enough, but not much more right now. My name's Kay Wagner, used to have a Sergeant rank in the Alliance a few years back; we're all Cerberus, though not strictly so," he paused waiting for the question.

"Not strictly so?"Shepard raised an eyebrow.

"Long story, that; too long to discuss standing up by the door in these bloody dismal tunnels," Wagner shrugged back, nodding ahead to where a wide, well-kept and well-lit tunnel opened up, sloping downwards. "Shall we?" he asked.

Shepard nodded, letting the small group of men, who had been watching the conversation as stringently as their C.O. was watching her, take the lead again.

Down the rabbit hole, she thought absently, as she followed them, flanked by Wagner, though she didn't bother looking back to him.

She opted instead to take stock of every detail in the maze of tunnels her small, wary escort were expertly making their way through; she documented every turn they took, every passageway they didn't, trying to form a mental map of the place, in case she needed it-which she probably would, she knew.

This mining complex seemed a lot more extensive than most, she thought, and there were definitely a lot more people down here than the small armed group currently in her company. She heard footsteps more than once-more than one people, the sound amplified by the stony passageways and caves beyond them-though no one seemed to cross their path as they kept on descending, tunnel after tunnel, deeper underground.

She found her heart throbbed even harder with each new tunnel, each new chamber they went past or through.

It wasn't concern about a possible trap that made her feel ill at ease; it was more like a mixture of wild hope and anticipation that this labyrinthine meandering might, indeed, end up bringing her to the person she had ventured this folly to find. She was suddenly rather glad she had come alone; Javik would have had much to say about her feelings, she was sure, and none of it really good.

She realized Wagner was saying something while she had been distracted by her thoughts.

"…the tunnels, Commander, the damned things go on forever; big-time mining companies got greedy, dug in too deep. They also dug in a spiral, apparently, in case you're wondering why we're going in circles," the grizzled Sergeant sighed, shaking his head.

Shepard nodded, mostly to respond. "How much further?" she asked drily.

"We're almost there", the man nodded back. "Believe it or not, we're not even half-way to the lower levels of this place," he continued without being asked-whether to entertain his own possible apprehension or because he actually liked talking, Shepard couldn't tell-"but we don't really venture all the way down. Threshers, as you already know and, furthermore, some of the lowest tunnels are flooded, believe it or not," he rolled his eyes. He nodded towards a sealed door as they walked past it. "That there leads all the way down; we got is well-sealed and rigged with light-weight explosives, in case some thresher finds its way up to it. The rock around the door on the inside will blow up, hopefully blocking the door for good".

"Sounds risky," Shepard frowned, though she really didn't much care; but it didn't really hurt to make smalltalk, much as she didn't really care for it at the moment; it might win her some information she could use, after all.

"We're hoping to be gone from here before we need to find out," Wagner replied smoothly and there was something in his tone that caught the Commander's attention.

"Really…would getting out of here have anything to do with me?" she asked coolly.

The older man laughed. "Damn, nothing gets past you, Commander," he said appreciatively. "Smart, tough and gutsy; wish I were a few years younger," he winked to her.

She raised an eyebrow in response. Under different circumstances his easy, straight-forward manner would definitely earn him her appreciation, she knew, but right now, all she really saw was a possible enemy. And she wasn't about to start an amiable conversation with someone who might well be shooting at her five minutes from now.

He seemed to notice her mood well enough. "Still not at ease, I see," he said somberly, smiling at her almost kindly. "Can't really blame you, ma' am; perhaps you'll be more inclined to give us the benefit of the doubt after you've had a chat with the boss around here," he continued, pausing by a pair of sliding doors, just us unremarkable as any other doorway she had seen in this place so far.

"You go on inside," he nodded towards them. "We'll be right here to escort you back out when you're done; no matter how the negotiation goes," he shrugged.

"Thanks," Shepard nodded back, before hitting the button that opened the door, stepping inside. The doors slid closed silently behind her.

The room she found herself in could almost be described as luxurious, despite the fact it stood who knew how many metres underground, in the bowels of a mining operation and…well, wasn't a room at all, strictly speaking. There was some metal plating on the walls, strategically placed to support the massive weight of the rock overhead, but it was still, basically a cave, like so many others that were sure to exist down here.

Shepard raised an eyebrow at the thick, almost plush carpeting on the earthen floor; it gave an almost homey feel to the whole chamber, and it looked so out of place in here it gave her pause. A plush sofa took over almost all the one side of the room, a few well-stacked shelves of books set up on the other side. A desk, equipped with an impressive computer terminal with a few screens-it reminded her a little of Liara's Shadow Broker system, she thought-and what seemed like a personal, small freezer that stood by the desk completed the room.

The commander moved towards the computer system, mostly out of instinct-and curiosity, if she wanted to be honest with herself. She had just come to hover over the system, reaching towards the keyboard, when she heard the doors she had come through sliding open again.

"I wouldn't try to datamine that," a female voice, cool, collected and somewhat sassy said casually, as Shepard turned to face her hastily. "It might well blow up your omni-tool."

The woman standing across from her, by the doors, was probably not much older than Shepard herself, the commander thought, taking her measure at once-and it was rather obvious it was a two way street, the woman watching her carefully, as well. Blonde hair, well-kept that brought the commander in mind of Miranda, for some reason; shrewd amber eyes, a strange colour, but it worked on her and it reminded the commander of a hawk; an attitude, clearly, judging by her easy, suave manner. No weapons she could see, not that it necessarily meant she was unarmed.

"Nice place you've got here," Shepard commented airily, not even bothering to answer the woman's previous words.

She tilted her head, smiling faintly. "It's a cave, too damn deep underground for comfort; I've tried to make it cosy, but to be honest, I'd love to get out of here and into the sun and free air," she sighed amusedly.

Shepard shrugged. "Can't really blame you," she said casually. "Now, if we're done with the pleasantries, why don't we get down to business?" she continued, just a bit more tersely than she had intended. "You can start by telling me who you are; and then giving me proof you have my friend. We can go on from there".

The woman motioned towards the sofa, seemingly unperturbed by the attitude. "You may call me Elena; I run this operation, or at least, I used to when there was an operation to run. Before Cerberus went haywire; let me explain that none of us here were on board with what the Illusive Man was doing," she scoffed.

"Not really interested in what you were or weren't on board with; I already know how Cerberus worked," Shepard shrugged in reply.

"Oh, but you need to know, Commander; because you're here right now for me to ask a favour in exchange for your friend-and I know he was more than a friend, mind you," Elena replied airily, studying Shepard with even more scrutiny than before, watching for a reaction.

Shepard managed to keep her poker face, albeit barely. If the woman really knew what she claimed she did, then that was one less bargaining chip in her own arsenal and they both knew it.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," she said coolly, raising an eyebrow. "Thane Krios is a close friend, someone who fought and died at my side, helping me with a Cerberus _murderer_; I owe him a lot and I am here to take him back, assuming you have him-or his dead body," she continued darkly, ignoring the stab of heartache at her own last words. "Leave rumour-mongering to the tabloids".

Elena let out a deep sigh. "Hmm…seems what I had heard was wrong then," she conceded with an elegant, dismissive sigh. "No matter; rumour-mongering, as you say," she shrugged. "Now, let's get on with this; I understand you wish to see your friend before we discuss our business, as it's only sensible," she continued after a momentary pause.

Shepard merely nodded, not really trusting herself to speak at the moment. Luckily, the woman facing her didn't seem to wait for an answer, activating her omni-tool and turning it towards one of the bigger monitors across the room. The screen flickered to life, a grainy image coming into focus a few short moments later.

A sterile room, Shepard could almost tell at once, surrounded by glass panels; she managed not to wince, the image bringing her recent nightmares into mind with a discomfort she knew she needed to mask. The room wasn't empty and there really was no mistaking the figure, sitting in what seemed like a cot at the far end of the limited space, across the camera, apparently, eyes closed like she had seen him sit in Life Support a thousand times. There were bandages covering his chest, as far as she could see and she caught herself squinting in an attempt to look more closely, fairly sure Elena would hear her pounding heartbeat now, but she really didn't much care. She missed her smiling at her back, clearly satisfied by her reaction.

The woman flicked her omni-tool towards the screen again, the image replaced by blackness as it went offline. Shepard turned her attention, a lot more sharply now, to her, eyes blazing with a fire that was far from friendly or amiable-not that she had been in that kind of mood before this.

"Where is that?" she demanded.

"I take it you're satisfied that we do, indeed, have your friend and not his dead body?" Elena asked, not answering the question.

Shepard shot her a killer look, hand reaching for her pistol. She had to take in a deep breath before stopping herself from drawing the firearm and aiming it at the woman sitting across from her as if nothing was amiss.

"What have you done to him?" she asked, checking her voice as best she could.

Elena smiled faintly. "We saved his life; only fair that we now ask you to save ours, don't you think?"


	8. Chapter 7

It took longer than it should have for Garrus and Javik, now accompanied by Kasumi and the two drell, to rendezvous with Liara and Vega, though they all felt they had very little time to spare at the moment.

As it were, the latter group was the first to arrive, since the meeting point was practically right by the spot they had been taking cover in to begin with. Both of them raised their weapons at the dry, muffled sound of footprints in the sand nearby, rolling their eyes at each other, as well as the larger party that joined them a few moments later.

Feron smiled suavely to Liara, noticing her frowning at him. "You're going to tell me off for this one later on, aren't you?" he asked airily.

Liara snorted. "Yes. You're supposed to keep me in the loop, not go off gallivanting on your own like this," the asari replied smoothly, though there was more relief than ire in her voice.

"Well, chew him out later, if you want to," Garrus intervened coolly, having moved to examine the somewhat battered thick metal wall plating that seemed to run along the wall where they stood. "We've no time for it right now; is this the place?" he asked Kasumi mainly, who had been leaning against the wall comfortably already. "It looks like solid metal to me".

The thief smiled under her hood. "_Looks_, indeed, Garrus; it's not," she said coolly, running light fingers over the dents and bumps on the metal surface. "See these? The complex's venting tunnels come out here. There're heavy metal grills under the outside sheet of metal, but they don't leave the venting system open all day, because of the heat and sand," she proceeded to explain.

"We found it by chance, while looking for a way to get inside this building," Feron picked up smoothly. "They open the external wall a few times during the day, to purge the vents. Kasumi snuck in one time while they were open and had to break her way back out. That's how we figured it out: the vents have no alarms whatsoever".

"Which isn't to say we can all go in this way," Kasumi rolled her eyes-the argument had started on the way here, after all. "Alarms or not, the sound of seven different sets of feet blundering through the vents is bound to attract some attention and we still want to go in quietly".

Everyone nodded, albeit more than a little reluctantly. "Yeah, well, I'm going in," Vega huffed. "I don't much like waiting around, for one thing and for another, Lola might need the help".

"Lola?" Feron raised an eyebrow.

"Shepard," Garrus elaborated, almost casually. "Vega likes…making up nicknames, never mind," he added, shaking his head at the lieutenant.

Feron seemed amused enough. "What's yours, then?" he asked Liara smoothly.

"Feron, don't make me hurt you," she replied coolly.

"Enough with the inane chatter," Javik huffed, sounding more vexed than usual-if that was even possible.

"One small team through the vents, the thief hacks the main door to the compound, so the rest of us can follow down the tunnels," he continued sharply. "The next person who starts talking nonsense will be fed to the first thresher maw I see," the Prothean added, his tone making it more than apparent he was not being funny.

"That worried?" Garrus asked, though there was no mirth in his voice.

"Do you really need to ask? _You're_ radiating worry in waves," the Prothean retorted, moving to examine the seemingly solid metal wall for himself.

"When do the vents open next?"Liara asked, addressing Feron, but it was Kasumi who answered.

"In about fifteen minutes; they don't stay open long, so we need to slip inside as they open, to be safe. Though there're no alarms, if something gets stuck in the grills, there is probably an emergency alert transmitted somewhere down there," the thief shrugged.

"You don't know for sure?" Vega raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't made a name for myself by getting stuck in venting grills and triggering alarms, you know," Kasumi replied amusedly, giving the man a quizzical look. "By the looks of it, that's your department".

Vega chuckled. "Not that clumsy," he said confidently.

"Except with that shuttle incident on Mars, as I recall hearing," Garrus remarked airily.

"That was extenuating circumstances; I _meant_ to crash it," Vega protested at once, almost reflexively.

"That didn't sound too good," Kasumi chuckled.

Vega was about to answer before Javik shot him a particularly dark look. The lieutenant rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"So, jokes aside, who goes in with Kasumi?" he asked instead a relatively long silence later.

"Me, I'd say," Garrus nodded coolly. "Having a sniper around is always handy…just in case we need to blow someone away without anyone noticing".

Kasumi nodded. "Indeed; and we will probably need to do precisely that," she said coolly, calling up a 3D model of the tunnels on her omni-tool for everyone to look at.

"There's a sort of security room, not too far from the main door; one of a few similar rooms, I expect, to control various levels and doorways. There's always a guard there, keeping an eye out. We will need to take him out in order to let the others in," she concluded, nodding towards the group as a whole.

"Manageable," Garrus shrugged. "Only the one guard?" he asked a moment later.

Feron nodded. "As said before, not a very large armed force to begin with. If I had to guess I'd say minimal force, more along the lines of a security detail than an actual merc group," he said coolly. "And none of the staff get out topside much. Can't blame them either; not exactly a hospitable planet on various levels," he continued with a shrug.

"Well, unless you're a drell, the environmental conditions here are ideal for our…ailment,"the agent added a few moments later, choosing his words with apparent care and giving a sideways glance to Kolyat. The younger drell frowned back, but said nothing.

Everyone fell silent after that, each lost in their own thoughts-and none of those cheerful, for that matter. They all stirred back to attention at the sudden whirring sound that emanated from the vent wall a few minutes later. It started subtly, increasing in volume and pitch gradually, till the metal panel started to vibrate.

"About time," Kasumi stretched, almost lazily, as the metal wall slid aside with a loud boom, revealing a thinly-spaced, if massive, lattice of grills beneath . A bout of scalding hot wind assaulted them, making everyone step aside to avoid it. The master thief nodded to Garrus, stepping forward as the gale receded a few short moments later.

"We'll head back to the main door; try not to take too long," Liara called over the noise, as Kasumi and Garrus slipped past the bars-the latter a lot more carefully than the former, frowning at the fact he could barely fit through.

Kasumi nodded hastily. "Five minutes, tops," she called back, before the metal panel slid back into place noisily, separating them.

The vents were actually very quiet, Garrus thought as he followed Kasumi as quietly as he could manage. The thief moved like a shadow, as was expected, but he hoped any of his own noisier steps might be discounted as ambient sounds- the tunnels beneath them as well as the venting system itself were bound to have their share of those, he reasoned.

It didn't take long before Kasumi paused, motioning for him to step closer. Despite the near impenetrable darkness of the confined space, their visor filters and the minimal light from weapons and omni-tools provided enough visibility to keep an eye on one another.

Garrus stepped up and towards a small grill that broke the mundanity of the otherwise unbroken metal tunnel they stood in. A bit of light came in through it and the turian peered through carefully to see they were over what seemed like a small room carved into the very stone. He could see some metal sheeting here and there, probably placed in order to support the stone as best as possible, but it was still more a cave than anything else.

He had an unobstructed view of a relatively small computer console from their vantage point; a series of monitors, arranged in a rough semi-circle around what was presumably the main computer hub for the security room flashed at intervals with images he could not see very well from where he was-nor did it really matter, he thought.

Like Kasumi had said, there was one man, sitting in front of the computer screens; he seemed either bored or tired-probably both, Garrus thought impassively; he had a rifle, but it was propped up to the side of the console, just out of his reach.

The turian actually rolled his eyes; whoever was in charge here didn't seem to be doing too good a job, he thought grimly, though he knew better than to jump to conclusions.

Carefully, he drew his sniper rifle, sliding the muzzle carefully through the narrow grill. The pulse shot caught the soldier right at the nape of his neck; he slumped in his chair and slid on the floor without so much as a groan.

"Nice shot," Kasumi remarked in a whisper, kicking out a metal panel near the grill. Garrus actually winced at the noise.

"What happened to coming in quietly?" he asked, rolling his eyes, moving to the computer array, glancing at the screens.

"No one around to hear us and it was faster than prying it open," she answered suavely, tapping one of the screens herself to get his attention.

Garrus glanced to it at once; there was no mistaking the figure walking down some tunnel, in the company of some unknown men, though it was clear, even with the relatively low image quality that none of them were armed any more-armored, for the most part, but no visible weapons except on Shepard herself.

"No way to tell where that is," Kasumi huffed before he could ask her, scanning the system with her omni-tool, before it emitted a flash towards the hub.

"There, main door unlocked and cameras disabled; well, the cameras controlled by this hub, at least," she said airily.

"Anything else we can use?"Garrus asked, already headed for the room's exit, though.

"Nope; we need to get the others," Kasumi replied calmly.

As it turned out, the others had already come in when Garrus and Kasumi joined them at the main door. Vega paused to examine the neat, ordered weapon racks lining the narrow antechamber right by the door.

"Very disciplined," he remarked. "Though I don't suppose we'll be as lucky as to have all their weapons sitting snugly up here and out of their reach".

"Probably just a handy location to keep weapons before going outside, yes," Garrus nodded, spotting Shepard's own helmet in one of the racks.

"The Commander's weapons are not here," Javik stated the obvious, looking at the item over Garrus' shoulder.

"We saw Shepard; she is headed down into the tunnels, escorted by the same people who met her outside, probably," Garrus confirmed.

"Well, then, what are we standing out here for?" Feron asked, nodding towards the broad, descending tunnel that started right at the far edge of the weapons' racks.

"Well, this is just great," Liara huffed a short walk later; what they had assumed was the main tunnel branched out eventually, it seemed, and none of the two different forks were marked in any way. Aside from the fact the one on the left had a locked door cutting it off, there was no telling which one led where.

"The tunnel branches out into two main directions," Kasumi confirmed, the stolen blueprints of the complex shimmering in a 3D image again along her omni-tool. "One leads to the absolutely lowest levels," she pointed left. "The other…well, it also goes down, but it seems to lead to an extensive warren of caverns; can't tell if it's as deep as the other passage or not," she sighed.

"If this is a mining complex, then the deepest caves would be used for storage; volatile materials, mined goods and so on, back when it was functioning as such," Feron put in. "This one," he put a finger on the hologram, making a tiny red dot appear to mark the location, "was probably the mining tunnels proper; I'd put some credits on it being living quarters now".

"We need to split up," Garrus said coolly. "Check both ways".

Kasumi sighed. "Good idea, but we have a small problem; this place may not have much in the way of alarms, but we can still be spotted by cameras. I can cloak, but the rest of you?"

Liara nodded. "Kasumi is right; we don't know who these people are, what they want…and Shepard is somewhere in this complex, all on her own". A small tremor made a few loose pebbles tumble along the earthen walls.

"And there're thresher maws right underneath this place," the asari added with a huff. "We don't need to be located till there's a reason to be".

"We need to take out those cameras, somehow," Kolyat said thoughtfully.

"They'll still know there's something going on, but they'll probably send people to check on it before sounding any alarm; assuming they will, I don't think they're big on alarm sirens down here," Feron nodded amusedly. "I like the way you think, kid".

Kolyat scowled back, but Liara picked up the conversation before he could say anything.

"Me and Kolyat will go back to that security room, hack into their system from there," Liara volunteered. 'We can also provide directions and help, hopefully; and we can try to locate Shepard…Thane too, if they really do have him".

"Fine; me and Feron will take the left tunnel, then," Garrus nodded, not really wanting to waste another moment discussing options. "Javik, Kasumi and Vega take the one winding straight down; we all keep in touch; and rendezvous back up here as soon as we can".


	9. Chapter 8

"Save your lives?"Shepard asked carefully, raising a puzzled eyebrow.

The blonde sitting comfortably across from her nodded, seemingly indifferently tucking a lock of her long hair behind her ear. "You are in the business of saving people, Commander; not asking you to do something all that extraordinary".

Shepard scoffed. "I am really in no mood for games and with every passing moment, what patience I have mustered is dissipating…rapidly," she said sharply, stealing a glance towards the new dark monitors across the room. Seeing Thane had cracked her wall of strict self control, not to mention her determination to keep a cool head in this, she was well aware. She was just about to tell this Elena person to get on with it and name her terms; only she knew that sort of reaction would put her directly in the Cerberus' operative's power and she knew she couldn't afford that.

She forced herself to draw in a deep breath, acutely aware of Elena watching her with unmitigated interest.

"Well, the Illusive Man was right in one thing about you, Commander, if you don't mind my saying so," she said a long moment later. "You really do care about your people; don't get me wrong, he used that to manipulate you back in the day…But it's still an admirable quality," she shrugged, a touch of perplexed amusement in her voice.

Shepard rolled her eyes. "I see no fault in that; besides, all this," she motioned to the screen she had seen Thane in a moment ago, "sending me the message you did, bringing me here, saving, as you put it, a friend of mine's life; aren't you doing all this because you _care_ for _your own_ people?" she asked coolly.

"Touché," Elena smiled smoothly. "You're right, Commander. Though, admittedly, bumping into your friend was just a happy accident; we didn't plan all of this from the beginning, pieces just fell into place".

"I find that hard to believe," Shepard remarked drily. "Cerberus doesn't just wait for pieces to fall into place, in my experience; you're in the business of acquiring the pieces and then arranging them in the way you want them to fall".

Elena smiled faintly. "_That_ was the Illusive Man; he had both the resources and the tenacity to do precisely that, though I'd say he only went to such lengths regarding you. One might argue you were Cerberus' most ambitious project".

Shepard grimaced with visible disdain. "Yes. I know that already," she said tersely; it was one of the million things she preferred not to dwell on, she thought, the fact the Illusive Man had manipulated her so expertly since he had had her brought back from the dead that she had never even seen all the strings attached-even if she had been aware of many and suspected a few more.

"Why don't you get on with it and tell me what it is you want?" she asked a moment later. The sooner she got out of here-Thane with her-the better.

Elena nodded. "Of course, commander; let's get on with, shall we call it, business? I'd rather consider it an exchange of kindnesses".

Shepard shot her a dark look; she really couldn't care less what the woman called this, as long as she got on with it…preferably before Garrus and the others stormed the compound.

Elena pretended not to notice the glare, as she went on. "What I-_we_-want from you is simple: we wish to disappear," she said suavely.

"Disappear?"

Elena nodded, pausing for a moment, as she seemingly chose her next words carefully.

"I have about forty people in this complex; several serve here with their families, as well, which should bring us to about sixty odd people to discuss," she started finally, clearly picking every word, every sentence with the utmost caution.

"All of us technically abandoned Cerberus a while ago, though we were smart enough not to let the Illusive Man know; it kept us off his radar and also secured us the funding and equipment we needed to carry on with our project".

"The project being…?" Shepard asked when the other woman paused.

"Our cell was originally started after your resurrection and return to active duty, Commander," Elena answered evenly. "My team is mainly scientists, brilliant doctors in their majority with a small contingent of armed men for protection purposes. The Illusive Man funded us to research the drell; primarily, the genetic Kepral Syndrome they are afflicted with".

Shepard's breath actually caught; she had not expected this, she mused, reminding herself to breathe again. "And you succeeded with finding a cure," she said carefully, not sure she dared to hope.

Elena shrugged. "Well, we can't take all the credit; there were already references, research being done, by the Hanar and other interested parties, some results, experimental, ambiguous; you came across some of those references, as well, I believe. Furthermore, your own Dr. Solus had studied it a little bit while on the Normandy, his notes were very…insightful; that salarian was pure genius," she smiled admiringly.

She continued a moment later. "Anyway, we managed to make some sense of it all eventually; not much else to do on this planet, after all, so not many distractions," she jested, though the humor seemed to fall flat. "We were sure we had it right, but had no way of testing it; and around that time came the news of the Citadel coup and a dead drell who tried to help, as we heard, C-Sec with securing the Council. We couldn't pass that up".

"We were still loyal to the Illusive Man at the time; then, our previous project leader was called in by the man himself for an audience. He never came back, we were told he was promoted; but there were disturbing rumors on the extranet and rushing through Cerberus channels and many of us had friends we kept in touch with in other cells. Still, it took us a while to realize our boss was cleaning house; by everyone's consensus here, we decided we'd get out first chance we got and hope for the best. None of us wanted to be '_promoted', _you see".

Shepard nodded; not the first time she had heard about this, after all, she thought. "I know all that," she confirmed coolly. "How did you manage to get Thane?" she asked, glad her voice didn't shake at his name-it tended to do that, after all.

"I know you know; Jacob Taylor's group…the Illusive Man was furious you got to them," Elena said. "That was when we decided not to officially '_quit_'".

Shepard nodded; that made perfect sense to her; she had, after all, been there to see how the Illusive Man dealt with those of his people who chose to defect his service and organization.

"As for Mr. Krios, getting to his body was not easy; or cheap, for that matter. We were lucky in the fact that, in the Citadel coup aftermath, smuggling a dead body out of the loading bays was relatively simple to manage. We had to bribe some customs' officials, forge paperwork to make it seem he had been sent to rest on Kajhe, and plant it at C-Sec and the dock management, just in case anyone came looking. Turned out to be pointless, of course, in the middle of the war, paperwork was the least of anyone's concerns," she rolled her eyes.

"And then the Illusive Man told us who the dead drell we had acquired was; that's when your name came up and we knew what we had in our hands. A link to the very person we needed to help us sever our ties with Cerberus once and for all. Well, except the fact said link was pretty much stone-cold dead from an incurable genetic disease unique to his species".

Shepard nearly groaned; the way the damned woman described Thane's death made it sound so dry and clinical and cold…Reason said it was exactly like that, technically, but her mind raced to those last few moments with the man she loved, in the hospital where he lay dying; and there was nothing clinical about her feelings, the visceral, raw heartache that came bubbling up even now, unbeckoned.

Elena didn't seem to notice-or if she did, made no remark. "We requested access to the Lazarus Project files; the Illusive Man was more than keen to provide that, as well as the necessary funding. I suppose he figured bringing Mr. Krios back to life and perhaps even curing him would be a bargaining chip to use with you. And if we failed, well, no harm; as far as you knew, he was dead anyway," she paused.

"No offense," she added, not missing the grim look in Shepard's eyes that looked as cold as green ice at the moment. "That sounded pretty bad, I know".

Shepard nodded, the hard look in her eyes not softening. "It did; I understand what you mean, but don't expect me to like it. As you said already, I care for my people," especially when it comes to the man I love, she added silently.

"I understand, Shepard, I really do," Elena nodded almost meekly.

"I'm just saying," she continued, "we had nothing to lose; and we planned not to let the Illusive Man reap the rewards, if our project was successful. Our plan was to tell him we had failed regardless of our actual results; then try to contact you, instead. The only problem was the process took a very long time; by the time we had our results, the Illusive Man was deposed by you, his HQ blown out of the sky, the fight against the Reapers taken home, to Earth.

We had no way to reach you in all that followed that, hell, we had no idea if you were still alive and no way to get off-world on our own; and Cerberus was in an upheaval, so those communication channels were closed to us, as well, we couldn't risk them. On the upside, the delay gave Krios some time to recover; in his case, I might add, bringing him back from the dead was the easy part".

Shepard didn't manage to mask her reaction at those words; as bad as death itself was-and she would know-what had plagued Thane _would_ have been worse, because it was presumably incurable, terminal. And yet the woman across from her had just confirmed they had managed to cure it, cure him; she had seen him with her own eyes, assuming she could believe the images she had been shown.

"Hm…perhaps not all that much 'rumor-mongering' ," Elena remarked matter-of-factly, though there was a hint of smugness in her tone, "unless you turn pale as a sheet every time someone of our people gets injured; not very heroic".

Shepard glared at her. "That is none of your business now, is it?" she snapped, well aware of the fact her tone all but admitted what the other woman was commenting on.

Elena shrugged diffidently. "I meant no offense, Commander; and no need to get defensive, we all have feelings, after all. No harm in that; and, to reassure you, it changes nothing, I'm not going to blackmail you or anything quite that quaint," she added smoothly.

"Though having that bit of information does put a few pieces of the puzzle into prespective…The Illusive Man was so confident you'd switch over to our side if we mentioned we had Krios, it made many of us wonder. Now, I can venture a guess why he was so sure".

Commander Shepard rolled her eyes at those words. Of course it made sense, she thought, that the Illusive Man knew about her and Thane; she knew Kelly Chambers reported to him-and it was her job to know exactly things like that about her. Chances were she had not been the only spy aboard the Cerberus-controlled, Cerberus-funded, Cerberus-staffed Normandy, too.

"What is it you want?" she asked after a prolonged silence that made the other woman fidget in her seat a bit, even if she tried not to show it.

Elena let out a clearly relieved sigh. "I'd like you to use your…resourcefulness, Commander, as a Spectre and a hero to grant us all safe passage from this planet; expunge our records-some of us, myself included are…wanted for affiliating with Cerberus and too easily recognizable, for that matter".

"In short, give us a chance at a new life; some of our scientists would be more than happy to go work for the Alliance, if you vouch for them and guarantee they won't be apprehended on sight. I believe you've met Sergeant Wagner; he has a family on Earth, he'd like to be able to go back to them, but he is wanted as AWOL from the Alliance".

"So you basically want me to pull all the strings I can and make everything connecting you with Cerberus disappear," Shepard said thoughtfully. "Tall order; just to get Thane back?" she bluffed, though she already knew it was pretty pointless.

Elena smiled. "I think you'd do a lot more to get him back, Commander and, again, no offense; I'm not asking for too much. None of my people were ever directly involved in any action that hurt the Alliance or anyone else; all of us joined Cerberus because we honestly thought we were helping humanity…We're guilty on paper and only by association," she said passionately.

Shepard nodded. "I know how that is," she said calmly, though she was still frowning. "What about the cure for Kepral's?" she asked.

"Well, the doctor team who developed it would like the credit; if you can clear our names, they can make a career out of it, plus, they're the only scientific team who can implement the procedures at the moment, so, I'd say it's in everyone's best interest that they be allowed to work on it".

"And the catch?" Shepard asked. This all sounded way too good to be true.

"Millions of credits for everyone involved, I'd say; plus, saving lives, which is pretty much what we set out to do".

Shepard fell silent for a few moments, weighing her options. Elena didn't seem to be lying and she was generally a pretty good judge of when people were.

Finally she nodded. "You've got a deal," she said calmly. "If you wish, we will take you off-planet on the Normandy as soon as you can all be ready. You'll be taken to the Citadel, as refugees, while I do what I can to clear out your files," she paused. "Two things though: if I run a background check on someone and find they have been involved in any criminal activity, Cerberus or otherwise, they are going to be remanded. And I want a copy of the Kepral cure data".

Elena nodded, after a long pause of her own. "It's a deal," she said simply. "Glad we could do business together, Commander," she smiled faintly. "Even if you drive a hard bargain".


	10. Chapter 9

Liara glanced to Kolyat with a sigh; the younger drell was busy across the small room, typing into the keyboard of the computer hub that served as pretty much the only piece of equipment inside the otherwise bare chamber.

The asari noticed his hands were shaking, though his expression was grim and almost completely still, revealing nothing of his all too clear distress.

"How are you getting along?" she asked casually.

"Almost hacked in; their encryption is…ridiculous and there aren't as many cameras as one would expect a place like this would have," he replied a bit tersely.

"Kolyat…take a moment, if you need it," Liara said calmly, hoping not to sound too patronizing.

The young drell stopped with his work, turning to shoot her a dark look. "I can't; my father might be somewhere down there. We need to breach these bastards' network so we can look for him; Shepard might need the help too," he groaned, the last words clearly an afterthought-or an attempt to get her to back off, Liara was almost sure of the latter.

"And you wish you were down there, with one of the other teams, instead of up here, fretting over database hacks, huh?" she asked coolly.

Kolyat's frown merely deepened, though he didn't look up from his keyboard this time. "Yes," he said darkly, "but, as everyone says, I'd probably get in their way; being a 'kid' and all," he rolled his eyes.

Liara smiled at him, moving towards him so she could face him properly.

"They do not mean it like that; nor should you take offense," she said gently. "Feron is…just looking out for you, I think. Shepard was beside herself when she got the message, we were all worried she'd go and do something reckless and headstrong and…well, stupid, because of the way she feels. Hell, Javik even told her so," she continued with a smile. "It can't be any easier for you; I'd expect it to be worse, actually. And like it or not, Kolyat, you do not have the experience the rest of us have around, well, this kind of messes," she concluded with a sigh.

"I can defend myself well enough; the Hanar trained me, as well, I just never got round to using my skills as extensively as my father," Kolyat frowned back. "But my body knows what to do, how to handle itself. I am _not_ a child to be kept safely out of the line of fire; not here, not when the stakes are this high!" He grunted, realizing he had raised his voice a bit too much; it echoed in the small room, reverberating in the ventilation duck Kasumi had kicked out.

Liara nodded, ignoring his outbreak-scolding him would serve no real purpose here, the asari thought nor was it really her place to do it, even if there was any use for it. "I know; and no one says you can't handle yourself. It's just…we can't protect Shepard in this one and if Thane is indeed alive and well and here, he'd probably want us to make sure neither you nor her got hurt on his account. Which is why we're going after the Commander; and why we're trying so hard to keep you out of trouble," she smiled, seeking to cheer him up.

"If it's any consolation, though, I think you might get your wish to get into a firefight before this is over," she added a few moments later with a sigh. "This operation is not going at all as planned," she huffed.

Kolyat had to nod at that, though he remained grave. "Yes, I noticed; everyone is groping blindly in the dark, we have no idea where in this labyrinth Shepard is and we still have no clue whether my father is here at all," he sighed in return, before the console in front of him beeped loudly, getting his attention.

"I think we're in," he said, sounding relieved. Liara glanced at the screens from over his shoulder. Multiple images alternated among them, a small virtual control panel blinking on the right-most screen.

"Yes, indeed," Liara grinned to him. "Excellent work, Kolyat," she nodded her approval. "Now, see if we can locate everyone we need to locate," she added smoothly, Kolyat's fingers already flying on the control panels.

"We've got access," Liara announced to their own communication channel.

"Good to hear," Garrus commended. "Our tunnel seems to be leading well…nowhere in particular so far, but someone had gone to a whole lot of trouble boobytrapping that locked door blocking it off," the Turian huffed.

"That probably means we're on the right track," Feron put in.

"Or the impossibly wrong one," Garrus snorted in response. "In any case, the way still leads downwards, so we may lose communications for a bit, if it runs too deep. I'm reading magnetic interference, either some of those volatile materials Feron mentioned might be stored down here or natural mineral pockets with electromagnetic properties".

"Just be careful; and very mindful," Liara advised coolly. "Team 2, status, if you can?"

"Oh, so we're team two now?" Vega asked, rather too suavely given the situation.

Liara all but groaned into her communicator. She heard Javik grumble something, though she couldn't quite catch his words, even if his tone was pretty much unmistakable.

"We encountered some people; civilians," the Prothean finally said, a lot more loudly than his muttering before. "They have been…dealt with; non-lethally, I might add"; he did not sound too happy about that.

"Kasumi's gone to scout ahead," Vega picked up, his tone official again. "There seems to be some mobility. The group of people we bumped into were all non-militant. I'd guess scientific or just civilian staff; some wore doctors' robes, but not all".

"The thief was right," Javik said grimly, "there are living quarters down this side of the tunnels; other facilities, as well, probably. We need to proceed with extreme caution, given it'll be very easy for someone to raise a full-scale alarm, if they see us".

"We have the cameras well in hand, though," Kolyat spoke up from where he still sat, keeping an eye on exactly those cameras mentioned. "I've got them looping footage from the previous few minutes, hopefully no one else watching will bother looking too closely".

"Yeah, but if someone see us with their own two eyes when we don't want them to, camera and alarm control will not do us much good. Not to mention, we'll be risking Shepard's life," Vega huffed.

"Shepard risked her life by coming down here on her own, against the plan," Javik huffed dismally. "Her judgement is impaired; letting her come here was a bad idea to begin with".

"So, you've said a few times already, but I'd love to see you try and stop her," Vega shook his head.

"Same here," Garrus interjected, his voice punching through some static.

"She wouldn't have listened; and she would have probably ended up coming down here alone, as well," Liara sighed evenly. "And this is a pointless conversation to be having right now, in any case," she added smoothly.

"We shall give the thief a couple more minutes, then go after her," Javik said coolly. "If she is as good as she says she is, she ought to be back before that".

"Keep us posted," Garrus said, as well, signing off without further comment.


	11. Chapter 10

There seemed to be increased activity in the chamber outside his room, Thane thought. People came and went a lot more frequently than had been usual in the time he had been here, and none of them stopped, as was part of their routine, too, at the diagnostics' consoles that stood just outside the cubicle of reinforced glass he was contained in.

Something must be going on, the assassin thought; he wondered if it was something he might be able to use to get out of this place.

A couple of armed men swept past the room, disappearing through the far door and into the tunnel beyond at some point. Heavily armed men, Cerberus insignia on their equipment. Thane frowned briefly. Cerberus. Of course.

It made even less sense, though, he mused; Cerberus had been, in part, the reason he had died in the first place. Why would they bring him back from the dead, let alone cure him?

The answer was even more obvious than the question. Shepard. It all had to come back to her. The Illusive Man wanted to get to Shepard, perhaps recruit her back to his cause; and he probably intended to use Thane himself as a means to that end.

The assassin frowned, his expression deadly. Cerberus' plan wouldn't work, because he did not intend it to and he was a man who was effective at making his intentions into actions.

He moved towards the reinforced glass door that served as the only entrance to his contained room as a couple more people passed through the room. Medical robes, unarmed; he recognized them well enough as a couple of the medical staff he was accustomed to see.

He knocked on the glass door, getting their attention.

"My chest hurts," he said with a frown as one raced to the consoles, turning on the microphone communication between them. He was young, no older than the girl who usually monitored his vitals, he thought and he glanced at his companion-older, an air of authority about him- anxiously.

"We don't need him to be in trouble right now," the second man frowned concernedly, before turning to Thane himself.

"Step back from the door, Mr. Krios; we're coming in to check on you. Nothing to worry about, though," he said calmly.

Thane took two careful steps back as the door slid open, moving sideways and right under the surveillance camera, where he assumed the blind spot was. The older man came in first; the boy followed, door sliding closed behind him.

"If you'd be so kind as to head towards the cot, so we can check the dressings…" the older man started, clearly cautious, but he never got the chance to finish the sentence.

Thane moved with the fluid grace that was second nature to him. His elbow caught the first man in the throat, cutting off his air supply before he could cry out; without even breaking stride, his other hand caught the younger man across the chest, throwing him against the nearby glass wall with a loud thud that made the whole panel shake. The boy slumped to the floor, already unconscious, as Thane wheeled about. The older man was trying to regain his feet, coughing in order to regain his breath, as well. Thane knocked him over the head; he never managed to stand up, hitting the floor out cold instead.

The assassin paused briefly, to make sure both men were still alive. Whatever else they were, after all, they had not harmed him and it would have been poor gratitude to kill them, when they had spared his life-had returned his life to him, he amended in his mind.

He stepped out of the room almost casually, stopping to check the consoles outside. The two unconscious bodies were, invisible to the camera, having fallen within the device's blind spot; the image merely showed an empty room-which would raise the alarm effectively enough on its own, he frowned, so he needed to hurry.

He typed a few commands in the virtual keyboard before him, a 3D rendition of what seemed like an extensive mining complex appeared in the hologram projector next to the main console. Thane studied it meticulously for a few brief moments, noting the main way to what seemed to be an exit, before turning the console off.

He would need to find some sort of weapon, he thought, though he knew it was not strictly necessary; his own body was a formidable weapon by its own right, even if, given the circumstances, he would need to be careful.

He paused as the door to the room he was in slid open, revealing what, indeed, seemed like a tunnel beyond. There was a faint, almost imperceptible shimmer in the otherwise almost still air that made him frown, instinctively taking a step backwards, preparing for trouble.

And then the air shimmered even more intensely, a figure materializing, as if out of nowhere. A familiar figure at that, the assassin thought, finding himself literally staring at the woman standing across from him, a smile blooming on her lips.

"Kasumi?" he asked, not quite believing his eyes.

"Thane," she nodded back, still grinning. "Talk about hitting the jackpot".

"What are you doing here?" he asked; it was hardly the first question he had, he could think of a million things to ask, all of them at the same time, but it was the first one to find its way to his lips-and it sounded silly to ask, he thought to himself.

"Very long story that; short version, I'm part of a rescue party, though, honestly, we didn't think there'd actually _be_ a rescue to speak of," the thief answered in a single breath, glancing over her shoulder briefly. "We came here looking for you".

"How did you even know…?" Thane started, but she snorted, answering before he was finished with the question.

"Whoever's in charge of this lovely little establishment sent a message to Shep," she said coolly, though she did sound in a bit of a hurry. "Really long story there and I'd rather not stand here filling in all the blanks for you, if you don't mind".

"Shepard…she's here? She's…alive?" Thane asked, really not believing his ears now.

Kasumi merely nodded, activating her omni-tool. "I got Thane, believe it or not; he was in the process of escaping when we bumped into one another. No Shep, though".

"He is…alive?" Garrus' voice came through, sounding incredulous, surprised and relieved all at once-and despite the heavy static that made Kasumi wince.

"As far as I can tell," the thief replied, slightly amused. "We're coming back to you, Javik and Vega".

"Just how many of Shepard's crew are here?" Thane asked, once Kasumi had apparently finished with her communications.

"Well, less than _all_ of them; though I suppose those who didn't come protested a fair bit at being left behind," Kasumi replied in her customary, almost flippant tone. "I came here with Feron, the drell who works with Liara; and Kolyat, as well".

Thane frowned darkly. "Kolyat? My son is here?" he asked, concern obvious in his voice.

Kasumi nodded. "Yep, a rather big rescue operation, though, to be bluntly honest, none of us expected to find you alive".

"You came here expecting a trap," he nodded back. "It probably is exactly that. Get in touch with Shepard".

"I tried that, but something is blocking her omni-tool; I'd bet money that those who…invited her here have her cut off. She's somewhere down here, as well".

Thane groaned. "This is not a very well-planned rescue attempt," he remarked drily.

Kasumi snorted her amusement. "Tell me about it," she sighed, handing him her pistol. "We'd best get moving, in any case".

The assassin nodded, letting the thief lead the way. He was overwhelmed, by her presence here, by the information she had already given him. The people who had brought him here-Cerberus, he had been right about that, he winced at the thought despite himself; he did not even want to ponder what this might mean-the fact they had managed to get through to Shepard, as well, bringing her here, though to what end he couldn't tell.

As it were, he was beyond merely happy at Kasumi's ever-so-casual assertion Shepard was alive. She took the information for granted, clearly; to him, it was more than a marvel, his heart had done a few somersaults in his chest at her words.

He had not expected to see her again, he realized grimly; her or his son, though he was not sure how he felt about Kolyat being here, in a potentially deadly situation. He was glad to be proven wrong on his assumption that he would never see his loved ones again, he had to admit; it was now he found himself _feeling_ actually alive again and it was a heady, intoxicating feeling.

He had to abandon his thoughts at the unexpected noise from somewhere up ahead; unexpected, he thought, but perhaps not uncommon, groans and some cursing echoing down the tunnel and to where he and Kasumi paused, the thief glancing back to him; he nodded in response to her look and they both dashed forward.

A pair of armed guards had apparently bumped into Javik and Vega, where the two waited uneasily for Kasumi to return; they lay unconscious, but not dead, Thane noticed at once, on the rough earthen floor, the Alliance officer-he had never really met the man, after all, but it was easy to tell what he was-rifling through their gear, picking up their weapons and spare ammo clips.

He nodded to Kasumi, smiling over to the drell covering her back. "That him?" he asked coolly.

Kasumi nodded. "Yep," she replied airily.

He straightened up and saluted, clearly out of long habit; Thane nearly groaned at the formality.

"Lieutenant James Vega, Alliance Navy. Nice to finally meet you in person, sir," he said a bit too cheerfully, given the circumstances.

Thane nodded back, but Javik cut in before he could say anything. The Prothean, the drell thought, watching him carefully. He had seen him in the Citadel, during the upheaval, but he was still amazed by the strange alien. It was almost as if one of the old gods had come out of nowhere to wander the galaxy, he thought; he couldn't help but wonder how the Hanar would feel about this.

"We need to be getting out of here; secure the drell while the other team locates Shepard. We have lingered here far too long," Javik snapped. He definitely did not sound like an old god, Thane caught himself thinking; more like an old, surly soldier, really…which was, of course, the case. Shepard had told him a bit about how they had chanced upon him, after all.

"Yeah, we've pretty much overstayed our welcome," Vega nodded his agreement. Kasumi's omni-tool came alive with static, making her sigh as she tried to tune in the signal. A message managed to come through, barely, the voice familiar; Garrus, as far as anyone could tell over the crackle that made them all grimace.

"…trouble…hear me…get out…very bad," broken words managed to punch through the static. Garrus sounded more annoyed than actually worried though.

"Garrus? We can't hear you too well, how about you use some tech skills on that com of yours?" Kasumi huffed in response, giving up on her attempts to boost the signal clearly.

"…threshers. Get…surface; fast," the message continued with a huff-or so she thought.

"I don't like the sound of that", James frowned to her.

"Primitive communicator systems, what did you expect?" Javik huffed. "Perhaps the asari can now reach Shepard; it might be worth a try, but regardless, we need to get moving".

An unexpected tremor shook the ground under their feet, making almost all of them-with the exception of Kasumi- stumble, nearly losing their feet.

"This is a bigger tremor than usual," Thane remarked, almost out of hand. He had got used to them, after all, but this one seemed…different somehow.

"Garrus said ' threshers'; I get the feeling we don't really need to find out what he meant, but we're gonna," Vega frowned.

"I am not leaving without Shepard," Thane said calmly, though he knew what the others would say.

"Don't be silly, Krios; none of us are," Kasumi chided promptly.


	12. Chapter 11

Shepard nearly lost her feet at the unexpectedly strong tremor, reaching out to a nearby wall to steady herself. Elena got on her feet, as well, looking troubled.

"What the hell was that?" Shepard asked with a frown.

"Thresher maw activity, probably; they've…made nests under the compound, which is just another damn good reason for us not to stay here longer than necessary. They managed to make the lower levels cave in some time ago, and we had to block them off. They seemed content to stay down there, but Wagner and his team have wired all access doors to those levels with explosives anyway, just to be safe," the blonde explained quickly enough.

"Yes, I felt some tremors coming down, but this one was much bigger," Shepard remarked thoughtfully.

Elena shrugged. "True enough, but we do get those from time to time; guess I've been down here long enough not to worry about them all that much," she smiled tentatively, reaching her terminal a moment later. She ran her omni-tool over the console, screens coming alive again. Shepard peered over her shoulder, but there was no image of the room she had seen before.

"Attention, all personnel; prepare for evac. Pack only what is strictly necessary, please. Medical and scientific staff, prepare all copies of our research for transport and be sure to get our patient into proper gear and escorted to the surface first, along with yourselves".

"Proper gear?" Shepard asked. Somehow, that had sounded ominous to her.

"Just a precaution; Mr. Krios is still recovering, so we'd rather not expose him to the desert and its sand, if we can avoid it. He is more resilient than a human, granted, but still…" Elena shrugged, not feeling the need to finish her sentence.

Shepard nodded. "Thanks," she said and she found she actually meant it. Suspicious of this woman as she had been-and still partly was and she knew that would not change at least until she saw Thane in the flesh-she had been on the level so far.

Elena nodded absently, though she was frowning at the news she was receiving back, apparently.

"Something the matter?" Shepard asked carefully.

The woman shook her head. "No, nothing much; some of my people apparently don't want to leave," she said dismally. "It would seem we have some in our midst that are still loyal to Cerberus,"she added after a short, uncomfortable, pause.

"How loyal?" Shepard asked, frowning dismally; she did not like the sound of this.

"Very loyal; they've taken control of the master tunnel leading up and towards the surface exit. They gunned down the first few scientists who tried to use it".

Shepard muttered a curse. "Nothing is ever easy," she groaned, before turning to Elena. "Isn't there any other way to the exit?" she asked, but Elena was already shaking her head.

"No; these tunnels were not built for versatility; one way in, one way out," she confirmed Shepard's suspicions, wearing a frown of her own.

"Any way I can contact the surface? My omni-tool is…dead down here," the commander asked instead. Elena nodded at this.

"Sorry for that; I had your communicator jammed…nothing personal, just precautionary," she said calmly, stroking a few keys on the v-board in front of her. Shepard's omni-tool flashed orange as it found a network to connect to.

"Can anyone hear me? Status report," Shepard hastened to say, wincing at the crackle of static that seemed to course through her communication channel, before it unexpectedly cleared.

"Shepard! Thank the goddess!" Liara sounded immensely relieved. "I was about to try contacting you, we've hacked into the compound's systems…" she started, when Shepard interrupted her.

"You got inside?" she asked coolly.

"Yes, there's been a small…complication, so to speak; long story, but Garrus is sure to tell you deviating from the plan is on you, since you went inside alone. We had no choice but to come after you," the asari continued, her tone slightly amused and definitely unruffled.

Shepard sighed. "Fine, fine; just tell the others everything is under control, the people here are Cerberus, more or less, but _not_ hostiles," she said evenly. "We're evacuating them to the Normandy".

If Liara was surprised, there was no trace of it in her voice. "Will do, Shepard, but there seems to be something going on; in-fighting, by the looks of it".

"Tell me who else is down here, Liara," Shepard said coolly.

"Javik, Vega, Garrus and myself; and also, Kasumi, Feron and Kolyat," Liara replied, sounding more than a little guarded.

Shepard groaned, not entirely startled, though, she had to admit. "How did they even get here…" she started, before signing. "Never mind, I'm fairly sure I don't want to know", she shook her head. "I'm going to gather the people down here in one place. There're a few Cerberus loyalists blocking the only way out; the lot of us should have them dead to rights," She paused as another tremor shook the ground, this one so strong it literally shifted the large sofa she and Elena had recently occupied.

"Once we punch a hole through them, we can get the people to the surface. EDI can handle the pickup from there," Shepard continued.

"Sounds like a plan, I'll notify the others," Liara said, but her signal broke as the static returned, louder than before.

"…mercs…no problem…threshers," Garrus' voice trickled through the comm, the message fragmented.

"Garrus?" Shepard yelled into the communicator, though she knew it didn't really help. "Where are you?"

"…levels; threshers…disturbed them…Get out…cave in," Garrus' voice was barely recognizable over the crackling, making Shepard wince. Whatever was going on with her friend, it was not good, she grunted to herself.

"Any way you can clear up his channel?" she turned to Elena hastily; the other woman shook her head.

"Sounds like he might be underground, in those deeper tunnels I mentioned before; we've no communication relays down there, it's a wonder there's even any signal coming through…" she broke off, frowning deeply, since she hadn't really missed the previous conversation.

"Commander, if your friends went down there and somehow agitated the nestlings…the whole place could cave in at any given moment," she finally said grimly.

Shepard muttered a few choice swearwords, making Elena literally wince. "That's what Garrus was trying to warn us about," she grunted, turning back to her omni-tool that still crackled its static-filled transmission, even though no words were discernible. "Garrus! If you can hear me, start heading back towards the higher levels! We're leaving as soon as possible!"

The omni-tool crackled a few times, then went silent. "Damn it," Shepard huffed, turning back to Elena.

"Get your people to gather to a safe area as close to the main tunnel as possible; my team and I will cut a path to the surface," she said with the practiced ease of someone used to be in command.

Elena nodded. "Will do; our small armed force can help out…those not turned to the other side, that is," she sighed.

"No," Shepard replied calmly. "I want your security detail, whatever's left of them, protecting Thane".

Elena was clearly about to object but something in Shepard's eyes stopped her. Instead, she nodded with a sigh. "He'll be safe, Shepard; even if I have to guard him myself, though I don't think he's the sit-back-and-do-nothing type".

"He isn't; but you said a few times now, he is recovering. I want him safely out of harm's way as much as possible," Shepard replied coolly.

Elena had no choice but to nod. "I'll go round up my people, Commander; I trust you can find your own way to your crew?" she asked calmly, not even bothering to comment about said crew having practically infiltrated the compound; it didn't really matter at this point, after all.

Shepard nodded in her turn, moving out of the room along with the other woman, though they both went towards different directions once outside.

"I am having some trouble raising Vega and Javik, " Liara informed Shepard a short moment later. "They and Kasumi were, apparently, headed your way, so keep an eye out?"

Shepard sighed, audibly. "Keep trying to get in touch with them, I will, too; Cerberus loyalists and a possible thresher-maw caused cave-in. On a positive note…they do have Thane," she said quietly.

She heard someone gasp; it didn't really sound like Liara.

"My father? You saw him?" Kolyat asked, the anxiousness in his voice more than obvious.

"I saw an image on a screen; live feed video, it was Thane as far as I could tell," Shepard replied, more anxious than she had intended to sound.

"But you do not have him?"Kolyat pressed.

"We will, soon," Shepard winced at her own words, tinged with nervous hope she really had no use for at the moment.

"Not the most important thing right now," Liara cut in, though Shepard found she disagreed with that assessment; Kolyat too, if she knew anything about him, she thought absently, though neither made any comment. "Are you sure helping those people is the right idea, Shepard?" the asari asked, when neither commented.

"Yes. Their leader's story was on the level; gave me no reasons to doubt it or her, for that matter. And there're innocent people down here, apparently, non-combatants that can use our help," Shepard replied, sounding a bit terse as she came to the spiral tunnel-like passage leading back upwards in a practiced jog.

She literally skidded to a stop as she reached what she could only describe as the first landing up the passage; a small group of familiar-looking people were a good way ahead of her, it seemed. She recognized them all…but she would swear her heart made a thundering sound before skipping a few beats, as she spotted the one figure among them that she had not expected to see again.

"Thane!" she called out, but was never heard; another tremor shook the very ground, the rumble drowning out all sound. Dust and small stones hailed down upon and around her. Shepard coughed to clear her throat, finding herself missing her helmet terribly at the moment.

When she was able to look ahead again, a few short moments later, the party had disappeared, presumably headed topside, as well. She dashed towards the next stretch of the tunnel, activating her omni-tool at the same time.

"Javik! James! Damn it, can either of you hear me?" she yelled into the comm. anxiously. "Are you two alright?"

Static greeted her, though she could swear she heard James in the background, muttering what sounded like choice swearing in Spanish, probably as he tried his best to clear up his signal. Finally, Kasumi's voice rose over the annoying noise.

"Shep! We're having some technical troubles, but damn good to hear your voice, where are you?" the thief asked suavely.

"Right behind you, I'd say," Shepard replied coolly. "Keep heading up; and don't attack the Cerberus people, we're sort of rescuing them," she added, not really in the mood to add more by way of explanation at the moment; it seemed to be raining dust non-stop now as she climbed the passage, blinking to clear her view as much as possible.

"_Of course we are,_" James snorted. "We don't need to do anything like that, Commander; we got what we came here for".

Shepard stopped dead in her tracks; even if she had seen him with her own eyes, if briefly, the confirmation stunned her and she had to stop to catch her breath. She coughed as more dust filled her nostrils when she drew in a deep breath.

"Shep?" Kasumi asked a moment later, clearly concerned by the unexpected silence. "Are you there?"

Shepard forced herself to snap out of it, beginning to move again, slowly. "Yes, had to catch my breath; we need to head to the surface; most of the Cerberus here are non-combatants, but there's a small band of their mercs that are still loyal to the Illusive Man. No need to say we're not rescuing _them_", she said, trying her best to sound casual. "Is he…alright?" she finally asked.

Funny how the notion of the thresher maws moving under her feet and the armed mercenaries out to blow her head sky-high failed to concern her as much as that very simple question, she thought, though she didn't really care to wonder. She was well aware of how she felt, after all.

"Siha…I can't tell you how it feels to be able to hear your voice again," the all-too-familiar voice made her gasp.

"Thane," she murmured breathlessly, not sure he'd hear her over the clearly problematic communications. She raised her voice, reminding herself to breathe. "Thank heavens".


	13. Chapter 12

"Not the time for this kind of nonsense," Javik cut in roughly, sounding more than a little irritated. "These earthquakes; they are caused by thresher maws, are they not?" he demanded.

Shepard was tempted to swear at him; the damn Prothean possessed all the subtlety of a blunt axe, she thought darkly.

She drew in a deep breath instead. "They are; Garrus warned us about it; I'm hoping he's on his way up, but we can't really wait for him," she said grimly. She was not leaving Garrus behind, that was out of the question, but they'd still need to evacuate Elena and her people and hope her best friend could take care of himself and would catch up. Still, and despite her cool assessment of the situation, concern nagged at the back of her mind; she set it aside for the moment.

"One problem at a time,",she continued, not sure if she was telling that to the others or to herself. "Cerberus mercs take priority; they're an obstacle to both the evacuation and our own way to the surface. And if there're agitated thresher maws coming our way…"

"We can handle that," Vega scoffed, not letting her finish her sentence; there was no need, none of them really wanted to meet those thresher maws, especially not trapped in an underground complex with nowhere to run.

"See if you can take them alive; not a priority though," Shepard continued coolly.

"Copy that, ma'am," Vega responded formally.

She started as someone touched her shoulder from behind, turning around, a pistol already in her hand. She couldn't stop a heavy sigh of relief on seeing the grizzled former Alliance soldier from earlier-Wagner, she recalled his name quickly.

"Elena sent us to escort your friend and his medical attention to safety, but he wasn't there," the middle-aged man said coolly, not sounding the least bit surprised as he nodded at a small group of people behind him. Shepard recognized a few of the men that had escorted her earlier; a couple of men in medical robes stood in their midst, one rubbing his head gingerly.

"My own team got to him first," she said casually; the sergeant already knew what had happened, probably and this was no time to act coy, Shepard thought practically.

He nodded. "From what I gathered, none _got to_ him; he got himself out," he said, somewhat amusedly, glancing briefly towards the disparate medical personnel his team surrounded. "Anyway, since he's apparently safe with your folk, Commander, we're taking it upon ourselves to escort you to safety, instead. Mind you, I already know you don't need the likes of us having your back, but we'll feel a hell of a lot better. And Elena made it clear that you're an ally and we should see to it no harm comes to you".

Another tremor shook the ground under everyone's feet before Shepard could answer. "We need to get your people to the surface as fast as we can," she huffed. "You might be better served guarding them as we head topside".

Wagner snorted diffidently in response to the concern in her tone. "I've personally rigged most of the doors leading downstairs with explosives; the threshers will never get through unscathed and we ought to be fine as long as we're past that part of the tunnels".

Shepard did not like the sound of that, not at all. "And if we're not, we're screwed," she said grimly. "Plus, two of my own team went down there; you can bet they disarmed at least one of those doors, they'd not have liked the looks of your booby traps," she said tersely.

Wagner let out a deep breath, mingled with some muttered swearword she couldn't discern. "Yeah, that's not good; we need to get going," he said dismally.

Shepard rolled her eyes, taking the lead without further comment, passing through Wagner's small contingent of men as she started back upwards.

The muffled sound of gunfire echoed down to them as they reached the next intersection, not too loudly. It was obvious the Cerberus loyalists trying to hold down the passage were either not keen on shooting their own or otherwise wary, given the current situation, the ground shaking every few moments, dust raining down on them, giving the tunnels a misty look that bode nothing good.

A large group of people met them in the landing-if you could call it that-Elena herself stepping forward, looking furtive. She exchanged a look with Wagner, before glancing back to Shepard. "Commander…your friend, Krios…we…" she started with a slight frown, but Shepard shook her head.

"I already know he escaped; he's with my own people," she said quietly. "Our deal stands," she added calmly. Elena sighed with relief, her reaction releasing a feeling of tension among the gathered humans, it seemed, though not by much.

"We got eyes on the hostiles, Commander," Vega's voice came through the communicator, sounding unruffled, to say the least. "They're watching their firing and small surprise, this place is shaking like asari strippers at Purgatory," he continued with a bemused huff that really failed to amuse Shepard-and Liara, too, probably, the Commander would bet credits she was listening, even if she made no comment.

"Take them out, if you can; no deadly force, if possible, and watch your firing, as well," Shepard instructed, frowning at her comm. "James…" she added, her tone changing.

"We'll keep an eye on him. Assuming he doesn't take them all out on his own, wouldn't really put it past him," the lieutenant replied coolly.

"We can distract them, as well," Liara finally spoke up. "Me and Kolyat are practically at their back, after all".

"Just get them out of the way; we're running out of time here, I think it's safe to say," Shepard replied, switching frequencies, as she tried to get a hold of Garrus.

Static greeted her, as expected and she winced at it, but then a familiar voice rose over it; not Garrus, but she knew that raspy manner of speaking, it was pretty much unmistakable.

"Can anyone hear me?" Feron asked tersely, his voice rising and falling in volume, coming in and out of focus.

"Feron, come in," Shepard called back, trying to be heard over the static. It was clear the drell couldn't hear her, though, as he continued, not acknowledging her.

"We got turned around in the damned tunnels, trying to find our way topside; there're thresher maws on our tail. If you can, you ought to make a run for it, assuming anyone's listening, that is," he carried on, sounding more than a little miffed. "Neither of us is injured, but I doubt we'll manage to hold on to that bit of luck," he added as an afterthought, the comm going dead a moment later.

Shepard swore again, not even bothering to do so under her breath; Elena flinched a bit, despite herself, given she scowled a moment later.

There was a lull in the firing up ahead, that was replaced by the muttering of the gathered group growing louder, it seemed, over the constant rumbling. Shepard winced at that last sound, she had not noticed it hadn't stopped until this very moment. She doubted it was going to last, but they'd need to plod ahead and just make the best of it.

She made a face she hoped no one would see, glancing up the tunnel, where she knew the others were; Javik and Vega, along with Kasumi…and Thane with them as well. She ached to go ahead, and catch up to them, see the man she loved with her own two eyes; it was an almost physical ache that very nearly made her gasp with its intensity. She was suddenly very glad not to be in the exact same area as Javik, surely the Prothean would have something embarrassing and frustrating to say about the feelings he would pick up from her.

She gritted her teeth; as always, there were other things that took precedence, she thought grimly, glaring at her omni-tool; she had it set to trying to ping Garrus all this time, but the device kept flashing a forbidding red, as it failed to connect. Much as her friend would hate having to be rescued, it was becoming rather obvious he was going to need it.

She turned to Wagner, who was watching her intently-and he was hardly the only one, she noticed now.

"You need to get these people out of here," she said coolly, her tone revealing nothing of her thoughts. "James?" she asked through the communicator. "How are things looking up there?"

It was actually Javik who answered. "The mercenaries were not a problem; I believe most of them are alive, as well," he said, though it was clear from his tone he was not too happy with these news.

"The non-combatants can start coming this way, Commander," James interjected. "The sooner we get out of here the better". He paused. "Any news from Garrus?"

Shepard shook her head, though James couldn't see her. "No," she said tersely. "There was a message from Feron, but I don't think they're doing too well in finding their way up here," she continued grimly.

"Lola…"Vega started in an ominous, alarmed almost tone. "You're not thinking what I think you are?"

She snorted. "Don't you get that tone with me, Lieutenant," she said coolly. "Get your job done; I won't be long."

James groaned audibly into his communicator. "Commander…"he started, but another voice rose over his beginning argument; Shepard winced, her heart doing an uncomfortable summersault in her chest.

"Siha…"Thane sighed, and she could almost see him shaking his head, since he knew better than to try to deter her from doing anything she might decide upon. "You should at least take some backup with you," he said instead, almost casually.

Even with the acute feeling of everyone else in the same room at the moment watching her, the Commander couldn't prevent a smile from blooming on her lips; there was a reason she and Thane were in love, she thought. They understood each other to a fundamental level. No explanations or arguments were necessary between them.

"No need for that," she argued regardless and she thought she heard Vega scoff in the background, but both Thane and she ignored him.

"Very well," Thane said casually almost. "See you on the other side; don't take long".

She wanted to see him so badly, the ache was almost unbearable by now, she groaned inwardly. "Will do," she said instead, though, letting the communicator shut off without further comment, before turning back to where Wagner and Elena stood, at the head of the ragtag group of former Cerberus employees, all of whom looked pretty restless.

"I need you to get your people up _now,_" she repeated to Wagner, who was frowning at her.

"Ma'am, you can't be thinking of what I think you are," he said tersely.

"I'm not leaving anyone behind, least of all a friend," she replied coolly. She was sure James or one of the others would try to come after her, she sighed inwardly, Thane had given up way too easily. And she was also quite sure that if she were intercepted before she got going, she'd have a hard time leaving...Especially when she thought of the fact the man she loved, the man she had taken a mad gamble to come after, was not too far ahead right now, she groaned inwardly, briefly cursing her almost compulsive sense of duty.

"Any tips on getting back topside?" she asked, deterring the older man from protesting further.

He rolled his eyes. "Take every turn right as you ascend; it's a warren of tunnels down there and even more of them dug out by the threshers, though, so be careful. I can have a few of my men go with you…" he started, but Shepard was already moving back towards the passageway that would take her deeper into the tunnels once more.


	14. Chapter 13

Vega snorted, trying to raise the Commander at once when she turned her communicator off, but to no avail. She was clearly ignoring any incoming calls, as one might expect.

"What is it with heroic people and looking for ways to cause more trouble for themselves?" he huffed dismally, glaring over to Thane a moment later.

"Why didn't you tell her not to go? Not to be disrespectful, but she might listen to you. And Garrus can take care of himself, you can bet he won't be happy to…" He broke off abruptly, as Thane shook his head.

"Shepard listens to no one; least of all when someone she cares for is in danger," he said calmly. "I'm assuming you all tried to dissuade her from coming after me, didn't you?"

Javic snorted. "Tried and failed; it was like talking to a stone wall-I believe humans use this metaphor rather aptly,"he confirmed.

Kasumi nodded. "Yep, Shep is exactly like that; you'd be wasting your breath and you might talk to her till you're blue in the face, James, but she'd still do what she wanted to do".

Vega grunted, though he knew everyone was pretty much right by now. He didn't have to like that, though, he thought stubbornly.

"Plus," Kasumi commented smoothly, giving Thane an almost quizzical smirk under her hood, "I'm fairly sure Krios wasn't planning to let her go alone anyway".

Thane rolled his eyes, smiling faintly. "You're a good judge of character, Kasumi," he said suavely.

"That I am, but you're just predictable," she retorted smugly. "And you're not going after Shepard where there might be thresher maws, mind you," she continued in a much more serious tone. "I saw your med-scans when I broke in here before".

Vega frowned, getting over his earlier irritation in a second. "Yeah, not happening, sorry," he nodded grimly. "Not with your chest all bandaged up; I'll take threshers over _Shepard-if-something-happens-to-you_ any day," he remarked as he hefted his assault rifle. "_I_'m going after her".

Thane did not seem amused; if anything, there was a dangerous glint in his eyes now. "I can take care of myself; I've done it far longer than you've been alive, probably," he warned tersely, but Vega was far from fazed.

"I've no doubt, but not right now," he said simply. "Shepard's no less a friend of mine…OK, maybe a lot less, by comparison," he smirked, ignoring Kasumi's shaking her head at his somewhat amused tone.

Thane was still glaring at him, though he knew the young human lieutenant was right. Still…he had not seen Shepard in so long, he sighed inwardly and just when they were about to find one another, _this_ had to happen-of course, humans called this thing serendipity, he recalled, doing his best not to roll his eyes.

"Fine," he finally said, though he sounded more than a little terse. Saving the woman he loved was something _he_ should be doing; but of course, the woman he loved rarely ever needed any saving, since she was excellent at saving herself.

He smiled faintly at that thought. Wasn't all that and more precisely why he was so in love with her?

Javik handed Vega a few of his spare clips. "I think I should go with you; I know more about thresher maws than you do," he said coolly.

Vega merely shook his head, as he strapped the extra rounds onto his own gear. "Yeah, those thresher maws you people used to keep as pets have nada to do with our version of them, if you recall. And besides, I bet you'll be more needed here. Evacuating civilians is never easy," he groaned as he turned towards the passageway that would take him back towards the lower levels and hopefully to the others' trail. "Won't be long," he said airily, before walking off.

"This was a bad idea on Shepard's part; too many of those in a single day," Javik remarked tersely, though none of the other two got the chance to answer- though Thane was clearly about to, glaring at the Prothean.

There were footsteps, not too many of them, coming down from the far side of the passage, past the limp bodies of the incapacitated Cerberus mercs.

Kolyat nodded to the other group standing across from them, as he and Liara came to stand at the far side of the room, both pausing to look at the sight that greeted them…and the other three people across the small space from them. It was them that held the younger drell's attention at the moment.

Namely, his father, standing there, in the flesh, alive and well, but for the bandages covering his chest like a shirt.

The younger drell realized he must look so silly, at the very least, standing there, all but staring, not even blinking-he could feel his eyes sting as they went dry, but he dared not close them, even for the shortest fraction of an instant a blink would take. Even after having heard they had indeed found his father, that he was alive, a small part of him wondered if he might disappear if he took his eyes off him.

He finally blinked, reflex more than intention. Thane was still there, standing between Kasumi and the Prothean, pistol in hand.

Neither of them moved, Thane watching his son as intensely as he himself was being watched.

"You two are giving me a headache," Javik remarked drily, glaring at both the drell as the stillness and silence were beginning to become uncomfortable. "I thought this kind of hormonal…rioting was exclusive to humans in this cycle".

Kasumi giggled, ignoring the offended look the Prothean shot in her direction-with his eyes, it should have been quite intimidating-and Liara concealed a bemused smile.

Thane merely sighed in the Prothean's general direction, making his way carefully through the unmoving bodies towards his son.

"We really have no time for this," Javik rolled his eyes, but Kasumi nudged him into silence, ignoring the near-lethal look he now shot at her. "I kind of want to watch this", she said, sounding as unruffled as could be.

Kolyat stepped forward almost dazedly, though he was self-conscious of the other people in the room, even when his father really didn't seem to notice-or care, for that matter.

The two drell paused a few paces from each other. Thane took the final step forward, clasping his son's arms tightly before pulling him into a hug-not a very usual drell greeting, to be sure, but he found he liked this human trait he had adopted. Kolyat was staring at him when he let go, smiling at the younger drell fondly.

"It's good to see you again," Thane said quietly. "Gods be praised…I thought I'd never see your face again".

Kolyat nodded, staring at his father as he had before. "I thought the same; I am so sorry…"he started, but stopped dead. He was about to say he was sorry he had not personally escorted his father's body to their homeworld, but had he done that, Thane would probably not be alive right now, he thought, the realization making him speechless.

Thane nodded, having guessed at his son's thoughts. "It's all as it was meant to be," he said simply. "It took me some time to realize the past is sometimes best left behind, though I have, it seems, some of mine to catch up on".

Javik groaned, recalling everyone to the grim reality, just as another tremor shook everyone back to alertness. "This is not the best place for that catching up," he said wryly. "We have work to do".

Liara sighed. "Give them a moment, Javik," she said calmly. "This kind of situation doesn't really come up every day".

Javik snorted in response. "Perhaps not, for other people; for your crowd, asari, this kind of thing seems to be such an everyday occurrence it's almost tiresomely commonplace".

As if on cue, a small throng of people appeared, coming up the passageway carefully, a few armed men at their lead. One of them, a grizzled-looking veteran by the looks of him, stepped forward, taking the scene in before letting out a low whistle.

"You lot clean up nicely," he said coolly, nodding at them all appreciatively. Javik already had his pulse rifle trained on him, frowning impressively.

"I'd say these are the people we're supposed to escort to the surface," Kasumi remarked pointedly; the Prothean lowered his weapon, albeit with some wariness.

The older human nodded his agreement. "That they are; mostly civilians, and a few of my men; you took care of the ones who didn't much like the idea of evacuation," he said airily, nodding to the prone bodies littering the small space.

"Most of them aren't dead, just knocked out," Liara offered calmly.

Wagner-for this was who the veteran was-nodded. "Much appreciated; they're idiots and they're definitely misguided, but they're still my men," he shrugged, nodding to the few soldiers with him. They holstered their weapons, hurrying to check on their fallen comrades, deftly picking up those still alive as best they could. A few of the civilians following them came over to help, moving with some clearly anxious haste, as a series of consecutive tremors made the very walls around them all rumble.

"We're running out of time," Javik commented through gritted teeth. "Shepard had better get a move on".

Thane frowned, glancing past the growing crowd of people towards the tunnels leading back down into the compound's bowels with some longing. He didn't even want to ponder the alternative to the Prothean's words. Surely, no fate would be so cruel, he thought, murmuring a prayer under his breath as he nodded to Kolyat, the both of them joining the others.


	15. Chapter 14

Shepard had to brace herself at the series of tremors that were beginning to set the entire integrity of this place on edge. Perhaps leaving the others was not such a good idea, she thought dismally, though she was acutely aware of the fact there really was no other choice; there never seemed to be when she was concerned, after all.

She glanced at her omni-tool, still flashing a forbidding red, as she went past the landing she recalled from earlier, setting it to work on one of the sealed doors Wagner had shown her on the way down, an age ago, it seemed like. Loose dust from the earthen ceiling overhead rained down on her as the device beeped painfully slowly, working out the locking mechanisms. She ran her free hand through her hair and over her face, coughing out more of the dust, as well.

The omni-tool and the door blinked green at the same time, the latter sliding open with an almost copious groan, revealing another tunnel beyond. Shepard winced at the neatly stacked explosive charges, placed in precise military order just past the bulkhead; none of them were armed, she noticed at once, an almost sure sign this was the direction Feron and Garrus had taken on their way down below.

"Garrus? Feron? Can anyone hear me?"she called to her communicator, instinctively lowering her voice as she took the new tunnel that angled noticeably sharply downwards a short way past the entrance. Only static in response, though she thought she heard some break in it, as if someone was trying to answer, but couldn't quite manage it. She found herself glaring openly at the communicator, before rolling her eyes and focusing her attention once more to the task at hand.

Compared to the tunnels she had just left behind, the disuse and neglect in these deeper ones was evident. There were support plates gone loose in places, several of the lights not working, the shadows their absence left in its wake having the commander watching those dark spots warily as she passed them by, weapon in hand. She was over-reacting, she was mostly sure of that, but she had long ago discovered there was no such thing as being too careful.

Of course, she amended as she continued on down the same tunnel, in an eerie silence broken only by the sound of her heavy boots on the cracked concrete floor, there were times where caution was mostly unnecessary. There seemed to be nothing down here, save for the neglected lower tunnels. She could see some evidence of water corrosion as she descended deeper into the complex, but nothing too unusual. She tried her communicator again, knowing full-well the seeming calmness was nothing if not deceiving.

"Garrus! Come in, if you can hear me!" she muttered into the comm, keeping her voice low on instinct. Still, she winced at the almost sinister echo of her voice along the empty walls around and ahead of her. A new rumble shook the ground under her feet and she had to hug a wall to stay upright; no surprise that the tremors were this much stronger down here, she thought coolly.

The vista changed dramatically past the next bulkhead.

The doors here seemed to have been wrenched free out of their sliders, she noticed as she paused to examine them; the whole doorway stood wide open, its metal plate torn asunder and left hanging rather precariously over the opening. Shepard muttered a curse under her breath…and gasped audibly when she tore her gaze from the door to look towards the tunnel ahead of her.

The tunnel had practically disappeared; this far down, the complex pretty much receded into a natural cavern-or perhaps the water had carved that cavern out over the years, she thought to herself.

As it were, and regardless to her assumptions, the way ahead seemed blocked by water. An ominous dark lake started a few paces away from the ravaged door, stretching ahead and around the entire underground chamber; on the far side, the scope light of her rifle revealed another bulkhead, similarly ruined. She turned the light, though it was not as strong as she'd like it, towards the water itself. It was dark and still, as far as she could tell, and not too deep-she could see bits of the broken concrete that had once marked the tunnel's floor jutting out of it here and there. She turned the light upwards, towards the walls and ceiling. A few supports were scattered here and there, looking much too inadequate to hold up a chamber the size of this one, she noted dismally. Still, though, there was no sign of thresher maws; one thing to be thankful about, she decided, stepping warily into the water.

It was cold, so much that she could actually feel it through the insulation of her armor, though it did not bother her much. It was not deep, though, as she had assumed to be the case, reaching only up to her knee somewhere half-way across the cavern. Still, she treaded carefully, even though instincts screamed at her to run through the water as fast as she could; she ignored it.

Step by step, the distant bulkhead edged closer and she ventured a glance towards it, shining the rifle light towards it once more. One more step she took; and the ground, such as it were, disappeared from under her feet. Startled, Shepard went under the surface, barely managing to hang on to her weapon at the last moment. Without a helmet, the frigid water attacked her exposed face and she gasped, breathing in some of it, before managing to break the surface again.

"Damn it," she huffed, trying to catch her breath, hastily feeling around for purchase and the ruined passageway. She fumbled onto it a few short moments later, almost panting. There had been no telling that pitfall existed, she thought as she regained her composure and peered back towards the deeper water. In the briefest moment, as she had been struggling to regain the surface, she had been sure the tunnel was not natural, but she was not about to venture another dive to find out for sure.

She was still shivering by the time she crossed the remainder of the room, using the butt of her rifle to probe the ground ahead –which seemed to take forever. She checked her omni-tool once more as she went past the second ruined bulkhead; there was nothing, no connection at all. For all intents and purposes she was all on her own down here, she rolled her eyes, her mind turning to Thane despite herself. It was hard to focus to the task at hand, knowing he was alive and well and somewhere above her-well, with any luck clear of the complex by now, she though, suppressing the worry that threatened to overwhelm her if she let it.

And then, unexpectedly, she heard it: the unmistakable sound of laser shots being fired somewhere up ahead. A frustrated roar reverberated along the cave walls, too close for comfort, pebbles and dust showering her as she paused to listen for a moment. Then, setting her thoughts aside, she ran ahead.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

She nearly slipped a few times, which forced her to slow down, much to her chagrin. The new tunnel was both nearly pitch dark and damp, the completely exposed rock under her boots now slick with what could have been water, though she was not all too sure as to what it was-nor too keen to investigate. It also seemed to spiral further downwards, which was not an appealing prospect, especially in the near complete darkness. Shepard fumbled with her rifle light, managing to increase the light output a little; not as much as she would have liked, she thought, stepping forward carefully once more. The gunfire had come from this direction, of that much she was at least sure and since she was down here already, well, she might as well check it out.

A strange smell rose up to meet her on her way down; she was almost glad she could not see too much around her, she decided, watching her every step. The smell was pungent, unpleasant and familiar; and she'd really rather not encounter its owner. She paused a few times, noting the filmy substance coating the earthen walls as she descended; it caught the light and glinted as if the rock had been polished to a high sheen, casting reflections of her own meager light about her, though it did little to actually illuminate more.

She was beginning to wonder just how big this damned place was, when she paused, blinking ahead. A faint, bobbing light appeared a short way off, though she couldn't accurately tell how far that was. She was sure of one thing though: that was the light of an assault rifle, much like her own. She picked up her pace, keeping it in her sights. A second, smaller light joined it, as she was presumably noticed as well.

"Who goes there?" a voice called out, barely louder than a whisper; the sound carried and she easily recognized Feron, the raspy drell tone unmistakable.

"Shepard," she replied drily, keeping her own voice instinctively low as she approached.

The two small lights converged on her; with all three lights, close together by now, she could see Feron and Garrus stare at her, neither really believing their eyes.

"Why am I not surprised to see you down here, Commander?"Garrus asked after a short silence, giving her a small, somewhat strained smile.

"You didn't exactly leave me much choice, Garrus; you know I hate it when people don't answer their comms," she replied with a faint smile of her own.

Garrus chuckled but he made a face as the sound seemed to echo in the chamber beyond the point they stood, shaking his head a moment later. "Damn it, Shepard, this is not a safe place; you should be topside by now, preferably evacuating everyone to the Normandy."

"And leave an old friend down here to die or get stranded in the middle of nowhere in a collapsing compound?" Shepard snorted. "I think not; I've lost my share of people over the years, Garrus. _Not_ adding you to that list." She glanced at Feron, as well. "_Or_ you, for that matter."

The drell shrugged, his weapon light bobbing for a moment as he did so. "I didn't say anything; I'm rather glad you came after us, we got turned around in these tunnels and with the omni-tools failing, it was next to impossible to find our way back up. Not to mention, it was a bad idea to come down here to begin with," he said darkly, glancing over his shoulder.

Shepard followed his look, aiming her rifle and its light over Feron's shoulder. A large cavern opened up behind the drell, so large her light cast its light no further than a few paces across, on a floor that had clearly never been carved by human hands.

"Careful," Garrus breathed, his voice a faint whisper, as he too, aimed his light at the same place. "No sudden moves, Shepard; this is bad," he added in warning.

Shepard was about to ask more when she saw it; a glimpse of motion, right at the edge of their flimsy lights. She could not be sure, but it had seemed as if the rock itself had somehow moved, either too fast or too slowly to be clearly noticeable. She peered more closely towards the spot the lights reached, using her rifle to scan the adjacent area as well.

The cavern was not empty, as far as she could tell. There were what seemed like massive tubular-like rocks cluttering the floor where she could see, piled rocks that had something odd about them..."Bloody hell!" she hissed as the reality of what she was looking at sank in. One of the rocks visibly moved at the sound of her somewhat raised voice. She turned her light back towards the other two.

"That's…" she started, though she didn't need to utter the question-or hear the answer.

"Yes, it is," Garrus replied regardless. "That's what's causing the tremors; might be as big as the one in Tuchanka, as far as we can tell," he groaned.

"Is it only one? Why on earth were you _shooting_ at it?" Shepard asked with a huff. "And where's…the head?"

"We weren't; it moved as we came to this room from a tunnel over there,"Feron pointed to their left and to a spot invisible in the dark. "Caused a rain of rocks to fall onto itself; sounded a bit like gunfire." He paused with a heavy sigh. "As for your first question…we've no idea if it's just one; we can hope, though."

"And we don't have a clue where its head is, but it doesn't seem aware of us; I'd like to keep it that way," Garrus picked up with a huff.

"No kidding," Shepard muttered, glancing back towards the now pitch dark cavern. "Let's get out of here."

She led the way back to the previous passage, Feron and Garrus close at her heels. "It's not too far up to the surface, reasonably, though it certainly feels as if it might be," the commander said under her breath as she retraced her steps the way she had come. With the added lights, she could see deep holes into the higher parts of the walls, gaping tunnels not made by any human hands; routes the thresher maw had apparently made for itself. No wonder the compound was collapsing, its deep underground infra-structure was badly compromised.

"Very glad we didn't see those coming down," Feron spoke her own thought too, the drell frowning deeply at the openings, as they kept moving as fast as they could manage. Garrus nodded.

Something exploded in the wall ahead of them suddenly, forcing them a few paces back the way they had come, dust and pebbles assaulting them like hail. "Thresher!" Garrus said quietly, despite the situation. There was nothing to be seen though, save for another massive hole, poking a new gouge into the wall that crossed the main one along their path. Happily enough, there was only loose debris blocking their path; they moved around them carefully and as fast as could be managed.

"I don't think it knows we're down here," Garrus remarked, as they resumed their hasty retreat. "Else we'd be drowning in acid by now".

"Well, let's hope our luck holds, then; not much further to go. Once we hit the main tunnel, we'll be reasonably safe; the sonic scramblers will keep the thing down here," Shepard remarked quietly.

"_Our _luck? Hold?" Garrus asked almost amusedly, but he smirked a moment later. "Ahh, well, can't really complain, can I? We're still alive and breathing after all the crap that's come our way over the years, after all," he shrugged.

"Really bad time to go reminiscing, I think," Feron commented, sounding preoccupied.

"Banter keeps the edge off," Garrus replied airily.

A viscous, heavy odour wafted towards them from somewhere up ahead. The half-flooded room, Shepard thought, coughing a bit as the smell caught in her throat. The air seemed pungent and well nigh unbreathable now, she thought, as they drew closer to the visibly ravaged bulkhead that marked the large, unstable-looking cavern. "Well, that can't be good," Garrus huffed, giving Shepard a reprimanding look when she coughed again. "You left your helmet behind; you really do know better," he said, not entirely joking.

"I wasn't expecting having to come down here to save your neck, you know," she retorted coolly, pausing right before the bulkhead to cough again. "What _is _that smell?" she asked tersely. "It wasn't here when I was coming down."

Feron had walked a bit ahead, trying his own best to keep from gagging-his lungs hurt, he thought to himself, he could pretty much understand what the commander must be feeling- and he uttered a curse, forgetting to keep his voice low.

"You two need to see this," he called out dismally.

"You need to keep your voice down…" Garrus started, walking over to the drell, but he stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide at the sight before him. He grunted a loud curse of his own, as Shepard as well caught up with them.

There was no more water in the room she had passed through not too very long ago. The dark liquid that now flooded the semi-natural chamber was seething, giving off a glimmer of an eerie, foreboding green now and then where it lapped against what was left of the various debris that littered the room before. Not much of that remained, Shepard thought grimly, a metal plate disintegrating a short way from where they stood, the sharp scent of burning metal adding to the suffocating air.

"This is the only way back up, isn't it?" she asked with an almost exasperated sigh.

"Unless you want to go back to where the thresher maw is stretching out and look for another tunnel," Garrus shrugged.

"Not really, no," Shepard confirmed, though there was really no need for an answer there. "We need to get across this…Will our shields hold?"

"I don't have any," Feron put in with a sigh.

"Wouldn't help if you did," Garrus nodded to him, before turning back to Shepard herself. "Our shields would be no good against this," he gestured to the bubbling liquid. Shepard pointed her omni-tool towards the acid, frowning at the readings.

"Well, this is not pure thresher maw acid; there was water in here before and it seems it's diluted the toxicity somewhat," she said thoughtfully. "Not a place we want to take a stroll through, granted, but we'll need to find a way."

The ground started shaking while they argued, barely noticeable at first, but picking up momentum with each passing moment. Shepard swore as the next tremor hit, the most violent so far easily, knocking all three of them off their feet. A booming sound echoed somewhere disturbingly nearby-under their feet, more or less, though no one got the chance to point that out-the entire cavern shaking so violently it seemed it was meaning to come down around them.

"Take cover!" Shepard called out, nodding towards what was left of the bulkhead behind them. Rocks tumbled down from the roof, as well as what was left of the chamber's once upon a time metal plating; a metal plate, bigger than Shepard herself landed right next to her, the woman dodging it just in the nick of time.

Just when it seemed as if the room would shake itself to rubble, the tremor stopped. The three huddling under the bulkhead's casing stood up, with a collective sigh of relief. "That was too damn close; I think the thresher is right beneath us; the head, at least," Garrus remarked, dusting himself off as best he could. The shields had held off the worst of the falling rocks and he and Shepard both had used their own bodies to cover Feron, who had no body armor to speak of, so none of them was the worse for wear…which was a feat to consider, given the circumstances.

"I think you're right," Feron huffed, getting to his feet, as well. "And we're sitting ducks," Shepard added grimly, walking back towards the forbidding acid-filled room ahead.

New pieces of debris had added to the chamber's air of disarray; big chunks of rock and twisted remains of the last few metal plates half-floated in the viscous liquid that seemed to bubble even more violently than before, hard at work dissolving the new materials. Shepard spent a few moments examining this new condition, her eyes darting across the room almost fervently.

"You're not thinking of what I think you are, are you?" Garrus sighed resignedly, shaking his head as he and Feron joined her near the very edge of the acid pool. "You know turians are not built for balance, right?" he continued, when the commander didn't answer.

"You'll need to rely on your flexibility, then," Shepard finally responded to that. "That debris is pretty much our only chance of getting across and we'd better move fast, before the acid works its way through; unless you'd rather wait for either the next massive earthquake of the thresher maw to come our way, that is."

"So, you're basically suggesting we make our way across _that_?" Feron shook his head, gesturing towards the room beyond. "I lead a pretty dangerous life myself, but you lot are positively crazy," he snorted, as Shepard herself rolled her eyes, taking a careful first step onto a stone slab that had conveniently landed so it formed a bridge from their side of the room to a cluster of boulders that created a sort of island a short way off.

"I'm suggesting nothing," she called out, swaying a bit as the rock shifted at her weight, "I'm _telling_ you to get moving! _Now_!"

Garrus and Feron exchanged a look, then the turian stepped onto the rock clumsily after Shepard, the drell following with significantly more grace. Shepard nodded her satisfaction before taking the lead, stepping carefully forward, ignoring the sharp hissing noise the acid was making as it assaulted the unsteady ground beneath their feet.

She climbed over one of the island boulders carefully, though it slid downwards a little at her grip, the other two close at her heels. "This might well be our craziest stunt ever, you know," Garrus huffed as he, too, got past the treacherous boulder.

"Oh, I don't know; Ilos, the Collector Base…London, the Citadel; I'd say we've seen worse," Shepard replied coolly, focused at finding them a way across. She could hear the unusual strain in Garrus' voice; by all rights, he was right to be nervous, she thought, but she was not telling him that right now; there would be no point, after all, though she might well tease him about it later.

Garrus made a face as the boulder he was climbing over slid sideways, nearly dislodging him. "Well, we'd better move faster, if we can," Feron sighed from his place at the rearguard. "The acid's not waiting for us; it's already eaten almost clear through the slab of rock we used to get up here."

Shepard merely nodded her acknowledgement. Another ramp-like slab of metal this time led away from the boulders and towards another cluster of rocks; the metal was giving into the acid's effect much more speedily, however, she winced, noticing the tell-tale signs of corruption on the plate's sides deepen with each passing moment.

"If we get to those," she pointed to the boulders at the far side of the makeshift bridge, "we'll be relatively close to the other side of the room; but we'll need to run for it." She paused at the edge of the metal ramp, motioning the other two ahead. "You go first; I'll bring in the rear," she said coolly, her tone clearly taking no argument on the matter.

"Feron, you first," Garrus nodded to the drell, who nodded back, though he was giving the dubiously solid bridge a rather dismal look as he started to dash across is. Small puddles of acid sprang in places as he ran, the metal around them growing rapidly, menacingly black. "Garrus, go," Shepard ordered, when Feron was nearly across. The turian shot her a concerned look, but did as he was asked; he had to dodge some of the puddles, muttering a few curses that were surprisingly very audible even above the sizzling noise of the acid beneath their feet as he did so.

Shepard herself took a step back, preparing for a sprint; the metal ramp was nearly at the end of its durability, acid blossoming through more and more cracks as the supposedly high-endurance metal gave up the ghost. Her foot slipped in one of them, as it unexpectedly appeared right under it; she held her footing but barely, but it slowed her down. The ominous, deafening sound of metal wrenching apart filled her ears, echoing along the cavern walls, as the ramp began to buckle, sinking into the acid slowly.

Shepard jumped, as the bridge sank beneath her feet, wincing as her shields activated, the acid connecting with the invisible barrier-a fight the barrier couldn't survive, she knew that well. And then she collided bodily with the pile of boulders, the impact making her teeth chatter. She grappled for purchase on the rock instinctively, but then two arms grabbed hers, before she could slip towards the acid right beneath her soles by now.

"_Reach saves_ the day once more," Garrus chuckled, as he and Feron pulled her up on the relative safety of the boulders. "You OK?" he asked once she was up, checking her over with the practiced ease of a soldier.

"I'm OK; a bit close there, our body armor was too heavy for that bridge," Shepard nodded back, already looking around for their next foothold. She could see the other side now, the tunnel opening up, and starting to curve upwards…to safety and the surface, she thought, sparing a thought for the others; she could hardly wait, for once, to be topside and out of trouble again…to be able to spend a moment with Thane-a lot more moments, really, she sighed, before dismissing these thoughts and refocusing, as a small tremor recalled her to the reality of their situation.

She drew in a deep breath despite the fact the air in this chamber was growing even heavier as more debris was dissolved and cursed when she started coughing again.

"We go round these boulders," she turned to the other two, as she already started moving, "and jump off the other side, to solid ground. It should be an easy run uphill after that."

It was a short time later when they finally found themselves on solid ground, the last pile of boulders behind them sinking like a stricken ship, small waves of sizzling acid rising up as the rocks were dissolved. Shepard stood still for a moment, both she and Feron unable to stop coughing for a few long moments. Garrus led the way back towards the passageway leading upwards slowly, already setting his own helmet up to help the others breathe, if briefly, as he went.

A short way up the corridor, the lights-undisturbed till then- flickered and went out, a massive earthquake following. The sound of something not quite unlike a train running at full speed or a spaceship, for that matter, assaulted their ears, making them stumble to the hard, metal-plated floor. "Watch out!" Shepard called out, though she could not see the others-and she was fairly sure there was no cover to be had in this area anyway.


End file.
